ON THE ICHTHYOLOGY OP THE SEAS OF CHINA AND JAPAN. 257 



backwards over the temples. A blue stripe edged with hyacinth-red borders the lips and 

 passes from the angle of the mouth over the lower limb of the preoperculum and subopercu- 

 lum. The membrane of the dorsal is hyacinth-red, the rays blue ; a series of blue and green 

 blotches mark the membrane between the spines at the points of the large scales, which form 

 a furrow for the fin, and there is a series of small blue points along the base of this scaly fur- 

 row. The anal is lemon-yellow with an indigo-blue border, and streaks of the same, which 

 meander over the fin and anastomose. The pectorals are purplish with an aurora-red scaly 

 base bordered with blue. The rays of the ventrals are indigo-blue, and the membrane of the 

 caudal crimson and brown. 



The description of form is wholly from the dried specimen. Two smaller examples in spirits 

 from China are also deposited in the British Museum. In these there are two acute teeth in 

 the bony swelling behind the front canine, but no visible granular ones. There is however a 

 small canine at the angle of the mouth. In the lower jaw the interior bony roll is flattish near 

 the symphysis, and the posterior two-thirds of its length is occupied by short, conical and 

 rather acute teeth. Two rows of scales cover two-thirds of the interoperculum ; there are 

 three or four rows of large opercular scales, and the scaly fillets at the base of the anal and 

 dorsal are very distinct. The specimens are 11^ inches long. 



Hab. China seas. Canton. 



Cossyphus ommopterus, Richardson. Icon, Reeves, 98; Hardw. 295. 

 Chinese name, Hwa ying ko, " Blue parrot " (Birch) ; " Variegated parrot- 

 fish " (Reeves) ; Ta aing ho (Bridgem. Chrest. 65). Bad. B. 5 ; D. 13|7 ; 

 A. 3|10 ; P. 17 vel 18 ; V. 1|5. (Mounted spec. Br. Mus.) 



The British Museum possesses a mounted specimen of this fish, which was brought from 

 Canton by John Reeves, Esq. It is nearly allied by form and colour to C. cyanostolus, schoen- 

 leinii and Labrus japonicus, all of which agree closely in the numbers of the fin-rays, but it 

 is readily distinguished by an eyed spot in the soft dorsal. Profile much like that of C. cya- 

 nostolus, with a more gibbous nape, and the eye closer to the frontal line. The small scales 

 on the top of the head terminate between the orbits by a deeply concave line. The snout, 

 nasal region, jaws, throat, fore part of cheek and disc of preoperculum are naked. Five rows of 

 small scales occupy a space in the curve of the preoperculum, equal in breadth to that of the 

 porous skin betwixt them and the eye. Upper limb of the preoperculum finely and equally 

 serrated; under edge roughish, but not distinctly crenated ; its corner slightly rounded. Five 

 or six horizontal rows of scales on the gill-cover, which ends in a roundish flap, that is nar- 

 rowed, as in the preceding species, by a curve cutting into the suboperculum. A strong coni- 

 cal tooth next the symphysis of the upper jaw inclines to the mesial line and rests against its 

 fellow in the other intermaxillary ; a small tooth immediately follows it, and in the middle of 

 the gape there is another, but none at the corner of the mouth, and no other teeth, although 

 some faint crenatures may be detected on the edge of the jaw. In the lower jaw the front 

 tooth on each limb is almost horizontal ; a smaller one succeeds, as in the upper jaw, but 

 the tooth in the middle of the limb is wanting ; there is a single row of minute rounded 

 teeth on the rather acute edge of the jaw, two or three of them next the corner of the mouth, 

 rising above the others. A small bony roll or ridge swells up behind the front teeth of the 

 lower jaw, but the limbs of the jaw are rather thin. About twenty-eight scales enter into a 

 row between the gill-opening and caudal, and the radiating lines appear more distinctly than 

 in cyanostolus. The lateral line is formed by a short stem on each scale with short curved 

 branchlets directed upwards and downwards, the branchlets becoming inconspicuous under 

 the last five dorsal rays, and more posteriorly. This answers to the description of the lateral 

 line in C. schoenleinii, but the specimen has not the low dorsal of that species, nor the vertical 

 forehead. The tips of the membrane overtop the spines of the dorsal. 



The ground colour of the drawing is apple-green deepening to blackish-green on the back, 

 and passing into oil-green and wax-yellow towards the belly. The pectorals and most of the 

 caudal have the middle tint of the sides, and the head is mostly oil-green with much lustre. 

 Each scale down to the lower edge of the pectoral has an oval mark on its disc, which ante- 

 riorly is ultramarine-blue, and posteriorly verdigris-green. The bases of the caudal rays are 

 also green, and the upper corner of the fin is orpiment-orange, edged with blue, while the 

 lower corner is wholly purple. The anal has a blue stripe at its base, two rows of blue spots 

 on its disc, and a purple edge. The dorsal is yellowish-brown with the tips of membrane be- 

 hind the spines, and a row of patches along the middle of the fin blue. The edge of the soft 

 part of the fin is orange, and there is a blackish-blue spot, surrounded by a paler ring, on the 

 bases of the first two jointed rays. The rays of the ventrals are blue, and the scaly base of 

 the pectorals is Dutch-orange, finely dotted with brown and edged with blue. The lips are 

 blue ; a blue stripe runs back from the angle of the mouth to the preoperculum ; and a blue 

 streak surrounds the gill-cover some way from its border. The eye is encircled by a blue 



1845. s 



