270 REPORT — 1845. 



being brightly silvery. A stripe of umber-brown runs along the side of the head over the 

 eye, the temporal groove is shaded by the same, and there are a few diverging brown streaks 

 on the upper edge of the operculum and humeral bones. The pectoral and caudal are ochra- 

 ceous, the dorsal and anal faint mountain-green, and the ventrals pink. Length of the figure 

 6 inches. 



Hab. Chinese sea. 



Trachinotus auratus, Richardson. Icon. Reeves, 104; Hardw. 196. 

 Chinese name, Hwang Id tsang, "Yellow wax tsang" (Birch); Wong la 

 tsong, " Yellow wax " (Reeves); Wong lap tsong (Bridgem. Chrest. 150). 

 Bad. D. 6|-lj20; A.2|-l|17; C. 17f (Spec. Br. Mus.) 

 This species makes the nearest approach to Tr. mokalee, but its snout is not so high, and 

 its colour differs. The British Museum possesses a specimen from Macao which measures 

 9 inches in length; but it attains a greater size, as Mr. Reeves's figure measures 14 inches. 

 The height is equal to twice the length, including the central caudal rays. The snout is not 

 vertical as in mokalee, but is very convex, the profile running nearly straight, or scarcely 

 arched, from the nostrils to the dorsal with a slope of about forty degrees. The points of the 

 dorsal and anal are a little less acute and falcate than in mokalee. The caudal is deeply 

 forked,, the length of its lobes being equal to half the height of the body. First jointed rays of 

 dorsal and anal compressed but strong, lateral line undulated. The colour is a bright saffron- 

 yellow, with much lustre, which gives place on the breast and along the belly and base of the 

 anal to a pure silvery colour. The head is also yellow, with silvery lower jaw and edges of 

 the gill-pieces : a blue tint spreads round the nostrils. The dorsal and pectorals are dark 

 hair-brown, the former with a pale edge. The ventrals are bluish white, and are smaller than 

 the pectorals; the anal is tinged with orange, and the caudal, mostly coloured like the dorsal, 

 is edged in the depth of the fork with yellow. 

 Hab. China seas. Canton. 



In the Chinese collection at Hyde Park, there are two specimens of a Trachinotus of an- 

 other species, but having the same number of dorsal spines with the preceding. I examined 

 them only in a very cursory manner. 



Trachinotus anomalus, Temm. et Schl. F. J. Sieb. p. 107. pi. 57. f. 2. 

 "Bad. D. 4|-2|30; A. 2|-1|29; C.20;P. 20; V. 1(5." (F. Jap. from 

 figure.) 

 Hab. Sea of Japan. 



Trachinotus melo, Richardson. Icon. Reeves, 97 ; Hardw. 218. Chi- 

 nese name, Kwa tsze tsang, "Melon tsang" (Birch) ; "Melon seed tsong" 

 (Reeves); Kwa tsz tsong (Bridgem. Chrest. 152). Bad. D.7|19; A. 3|17; 

 C. \6{%; P. 18 ; V. l|5. (Spec. Camb. Ph. Inst.) 



The Tr. anomalus of the ' Fauna Japonica ' is described solely from the figure which was 

 executed in Japan. It may therefore prove, when better known, to be the same species with 

 the Chinese one represented in Mr. Reeves's drawing. Of this an example exists in the Museum 

 of the Cambridge Philosophical Institution, which was brought from Canton by the Rev. 

 George Vachell. It has the same elliptical profile with anomalus, but its snout is more obtuse 

 and sufficiently gibbous at the nostrils to project a little beyond the mouth. Mouth small. 

 Nostrils two round contiguous openings before the eye. Eye large. Anus between the tips 

 of the ventrals immediately before the anal fin, no free spines intervening. Head nacry, with- 

 out scales. Scales of the body very minute and tender, but not deciduous. Lateral line 

 nearly straight, without any semblance of a keel or armature posteriorly. There are no 

 scales on the vertical fins. The spines of the dorsal have been omitted by the artist, and they 

 may be very readily overlooked when recumbent : they are seven in number, exclusive of 

 the recumbent ones. The first is very short, and the sixth is shorter than the fifth, so that 

 the spinous part has a very slightly arched shape, and is almost as distinct from the soft part as 

 in some Scianidce, which are described as having two dorsals. The sixth spine equals the 

 fifth one in length, and belongs more properly to the soft fin, which is not in any way pointed 

 or falcate. The second anal spine is as long as the third one, and is stronger and somewhat 

 curved. Pectorals moderate size. Ventral spines short: these ventrals, from the thinness of 

 the belly, are contiguous. The fish generally is brilliantly nacry or silvery, with a bluish-gray 

 tint along the back and at the bases of the opercular pieces. There is a wood-brown tint on 

 the nape, and a gloss of the same on the sides. The fins are transparent, and the dorsal is 

 traversed by a faint stripe below its middle ; and another faint brownish stripe a little arched 

 runs from the temples to the trunk of the tail. The muscles shine through the integuments 

 of the sides, producing stripes bent en chevron, first at the brown stripe and then in the oppo- 



