256 report — 1845. 



The text appertaining to this Pla:e is not yet published (Sept. 1845). 

 Hab. Sea of Japan. 



Cossyphus microlepidotus, Bl. 292 (Labrus) ; C. et V. xiii. p. 140. 



Hab. Sea of Japan. 



Cossyphus bilunulatus, Lacepede (Labrus), iii. p. 454 et 528 ; C. et V. 



xiii. p. 122 ; Icon. Reeves, 243 ; Hardw. 302. Chinese name, Hung ying 



yu, " Red parrot-fish" (Birch); " Red eagle-fish " (Reeves). 



Hyacinth-red glossed with yellow inferiorly, each scale finely dotted on the margin with 

 brownish-red, the head above deep crimson, with arterial blood-red stripes. Cheeks and gill- 

 pieces silvery with purplish tints, a few red specks and a brownish-red stripe from the corner 

 of the mouth over the lower part of the cheek and suboperculum to the gill-opening. Soft parts 

 of vertical fins and caudal yellow with red shadings. Spinous dorsal, pectorals and ventrals 

 lake-red. Black marks on the hinder part of back and top of tail, and first three dorsal spines 

 blackish-blue. Length of figure 9^ inches. 



Hab. Mauritius. China seas. Canton. 



Cossyphus cyanostolus, Richardson. Icon. Reeves, 251 ; Hardw. 292. 



Chinese name, Tsing e, "Blue clothes" (Birch); Ching e, "Blue coat" 



(Reeves); Tsing i (Bridgem. Chrest. 123). Bad. D. 13|7; A. 3|10 ; 



C. 12f ; P. 18 ; V. 1|5. (Dried spec. Br. Mus.) 



A dried specimen of this fish, brought from Canton by John Reeves, Esq., exists in the 

 British Museum, measuring fourteen inches in length. The drawing is eleven inches long. 

 In the number of the rays and many other characters it agrees with C. schoenleinii, but it has 

 not the vertical profile of that species. In the rays, and also in the form and distribution of 

 the markings, it is much like the Labrus japonicus as figured in the ' Fauna Japonica,' pi. 85, 

 but has a much less convex and more sloping profile as well as a different ground colour. The 

 latter difference would weigh little as a specific distinction, since the reds, greens and blues of 

 the Labridce are interchangeable at various seasons and after the death of the fish ; but there 

 is also a discrepancy in the ramifications of the mucous canals which form the lateral line. 

 They are less branched anteriorly in L. japonicus, but in C. cyanostolus, as in schoenleinii, they 

 become more simple posteriorly. 



Height of body contained twice and two-thirds in the whole length. Profile between the 

 upper lip and dorsal a small arc of a circle, slightly gibbous at the eye. A long scaly 

 trunk of the tail, the scales covering much of the caudal fin, which consequently looks short 

 and spreads little. A stout subulato-conical tooth next the symphysis is followed by a shorter 

 one. The jaw behind them swells out into a thickish roll, in which a short conical tooth is 

 implanted immediately behind the front canine ; further along the jaw there are some scarcely 

 perceptible granular teeth. In the lower jaw the second tooth is slightly recurved, and there 

 is no toothlet in the bony roll behind the front canine, but some very minute granular teeth 

 exist on the edge of the jaw, and at the angle of the mouth four contiguous teeth rise above 

 the rest; but even these are small and might be easily overlooked in a recent specimen. Lips 

 large. Top of the head, large preorbitar, margin of the orbit, lower jaw, most of the inter- 

 opercular plate, and the disc of the preoperculum minutely porous. Five rows of small, round, 

 distant scales imbedded in the cheek, thinning off to one row on the temples. Upper limb of 

 preoperculum finely serrated by teeth which point upwards, the corner slightly rounded, and 

 the lower limb half as long as the upper one. Interoperculum spreading out into a large sub- 

 membranaceous flap which comes over the throat. In the specimen there are only four or five 

 scales remaining on this bone, and they are closely tiled at the angle of the preoperculum. 

 Four or five rows of larger scales exist on the operculum. The gill-flap ends in a rounded 

 membranous lobe which projects over the base of the pectoral. Lateral line composed of thirty 

 scales, and marked on each scale by a bush-like cluster of mucous canals, which are equally 

 full of branches from the beginning to the end of the line. Each cluster is bifurcated, 

 spreading equally above and below the line, and each fork consists of about four undulating 

 branches with short lateral branchlets. The basal striae show faintly through the scale 

 which overlaps them. A patch of scales covers the supra- scapular, as in a sparoid. 



The ground colour of the drawing is oil-green, darker on the head and back, and each scale 

 on the body and hinder part of the gill- cover is marked by an oval indigo -blue spot placed 

 vertically, and shaded off for the most part by greenish-blue. There are no spots beneath and 

 before the pectoral, and on the tail behind the anal and dorsal the spots are placed lengthwise, 

 so as to form longitudinal rows, which end in nearly continuous streaks on the caudal. They 

 are broken again into spots on the extremity of the caudal, and some of the streaks are glossed 

 with green. Three blue and green stripes radiate from the eye over the nose, and as many 



