PSETTUS. 123 



a little deeper than long. 50-60 tubes in lateral line. Silvery, back 

 sometimes brownish; dorsal and anal fins brown or blackish in front ; 

 young with a dark brown band from the nape to the throat, passing 

 through the eye, and another from the nape to between the ventral 

 and the anal, over the base of the pectoral. 



Total length 210 millim. 



Red Sea and East Coast of Africa to Polynesia. 



1. Ad., skin. Zanzibar. Sir L. Play fair (P.). 



2, 3. Yg. „ „ 



4. Yg. Mouth of Zambesi. Sir J. Kirk (P.). 



5, 6-8. Ad., hgr., & yg. Rodriguez. G. Gulliver, Esq. (P.). 

 9. Hgr. Rodriguez, fresh water. „ 



3. PSETTUS SEB.E. 

 Cltcvtodon rhombeus (non Forsk.), Bloch, Schneid. Syst. Ichth. i. p. 235 (1801). 

 Psettus schte, Cuv. & Val. Hist. Poiss. vii. p. 241, pi. elxxxix. (1831) ; Giinth. Cat. 



Fish. ii. p. 486 (1860) ; Bleek. Nat. Verb. Ges. Haarlem, xviii. 1863, p. 68 ; 



Steind. Sitzb. Ak. Wien, lx. i. 1869, p. 713, and Notes Leyd. Mus. xvi. 1894, 



p. 19; Pellegr. Bull. Soc. Philom. (9) ix. 1907, p. 35. 

 Gasterosteus rhombeus, Forster, Descr. Anim. p. 7 (1844). 



Body deeppr than long ; length of head 2^ to 3 times in total length. 

 Snout much shorter than eye, which is 2i to 3 times in length of head 

 and equal to or a little greater than interorbital width ; maxillary 

 extending to below anterior border or anterior fourth of eye ; head 

 entirely covered with very small scales. Gill-rakers long, 20-24 on 

 lower part of anterior arch. Dorsal VIII (rarely VII) 31-34 ; last 

 spine § to once length of head ; anterior soft rays produced, the fin 

 falciform in front. Anal III 34-38 ; third spine nearly or quite as long 

 as head. Pectoral f to |- length of head. Ventral reduced to a very 

 small or minute spine, with or without one or two soft rays. Caudal 

 truncate or slightly emarginate. Caudal peduncle nearly twice as deep 

 as long. 48—55 tubes in lateral line. Silvery or brownish, uniform or 

 with traces of three dark vertical bands, which are always present in the 

 very young : the first passing through the eye, the second through the 

 base of the pectoral, the third extending from the anterior soft rays of 

 the dorsal to those of the anal. 



Total length 160 millim. 



West Coast of Africa, from the Senegal to the Congo. — Types in 

 Paris Museum. 



