ON THE ICHTHYOLOGY OP THE SEAS OF CHINA AND JAPAN. 237 



figure in the 'Fauna Japonica,' just as a recent specimen from one that has hecome flaccid in 

 spirits and lost its plumpness and height. The vertical bands are also fainter in the drawing, 

 and the fins have a deep saffron-yellow or Dutch-orange colour instead of the pale primrose 

 tint shown in the ' Fauna Japonica.' Teeth villiform with an outer row of stouter ones. 

 Lower jaw teeth shorter. A very minute bony point on the edge of the gill-cover. A flat, 

 acute, suborbitar tooth, with a point beneath its base. Edge of the suborbital- under the pos- 

 terior third of the orbit strongly serrated. We have seen a drawing of a Scolopsides, executed 

 at the islands of Houtman's Abrolhos, on the west coast of Australia, by Lieut. Emery, of the 

 Royal Navy, which strongly resembles this fish ; but the fins have only a yellow border and 

 are otherwise colourless. 



Hab. Seas of China and Japan. 



Scolopsides pomotis, Richardson. Icon. Reeves, /3. 15; Hardw. Acanth. 

 Chinese names, Shih kei, " Stone robber" (Reeves); Shih tsei (Birch). 



Though this drawing does not exhibit the peculiar suborbitar tooth of the genus, I am in- 

 duced, in the absence of specimens, from its near resemblance to the preceding two species, 

 to refer it to Scolopsides ; and if this reference be correct, it possesses specific marks in the jet 

 black tip of the gill-cover, and in a black speck on the base of the upper pectoral ray. It has 

 the yellow fins and bright carmine spot on the gill-cover of the preceding species ; but its back 

 is browner and its profile undulated. Length of the drawing G inches. 



Hab. Chinese sea. Canton. 



Lobotes incurvus, Richardson. Icon. Reeves, 168; Hardw. Acanth. 76. 

 Bad. D. 12|15 ; A. 3|11 ; P. 17, &c. (Spec. Br. Mus.) 



This fish has the blackish hue of Lobotes farkarii, but not the orange-coloured fins, and it 

 has a more deeply incurved profile and higher fins than any species described in the ' Histoire 

 des Poissons.' 



Head scaly to orbit and forward on the cheek to the angle of the mouth, also the disc of the 

 preoperculum. Edge of this bone spinosely dentate all round. Gill-cover, with a rounded 

 projecting bony point and no sinus above it, scaly to the edge. Supra axillary plates of co- 

 racoid bone with fourteen teeth. Soft dorsal, anal caudal and base of pectoral scaly. Spines 

 strongly striated. Outer row of teeth subulato-conical, inclined backwards, rather taller on 

 the sides of the lower jaw. Within the upper jaw a narrow band of granular teeth. On the 

 lower jaw the interior teeth are in a single row and very minute. In the drawing the sides 

 and head are densely clouded with blackish purple mixed on the base of the fins, and towards 

 the lower parts with siskin-green. The soft dorsal, anal and caudal are blacker, and the lat- 

 ter is edged obscurely above and below with yellow or pale green. The pectoral is clay- 

 coloured; the ventrals and spinous dorsal clouded with neutral tint. Length 12 inches. 



Hab. China seas. Canton. 



Lobotes citrinus, Richardson. Icon. Reeves, 191 ; Hardw. Acanth. 168. 



This species has the pale bar on the extremity of the caudal fin and some other colours 

 ascribed to Lobotes erate in the ' Histoire des Poissons,' particularly to the specimens which 

 M. Dussumier brought from the coast of Malabar (v. p. 323); but the height of the body is 

 greater, being equal to half the length of the fish, caudal fin excluded, and I have therefore 

 thought it expedient to give it a provisional specific name. The Chinese collection at Hyde 

 Park contains specimens which I have very cursorily examined. The ground colour in Mr. 

 Reeves's drawing is dull lemon-yellow, with obscure purplish clouding, a purplish black shading 

 round the eye, on the tip of the gill-cover, the nape and bases of the vertical fins and pec- 

 torals. The pectorals are pale and transparent, the rest of the fins are blackish, more or less 

 clouded, and the soft dorsal and anal are bordered with buff-orange. 



Hab. China seas. Canton. 



Priacanthus benmebari, Temm. et Schl. F.J. Sieb. p. 19. pi. 7. f. 1. 

 Krusenst. 53. f. 2. Bad. D. 10|13 ; A. 3|14 ; C. 16f ; P. 19 ; V. 1|5. 



The British Museum possesses two of Burger's Japanese specimens. In them the end of 

 the caudal is concave, not convex, as in the figure in the • Fauna Japonica ;' and the scales are 

 not so rough as in most other species. 



Hab. Sea of Japan. 



PriacanthOs tayenus, Richardson. Icon. Reeves, (3. 14 ; Hardw. Acanth. 



