242 Fishes observed at Nice, 1865. 



quently taken twice that length. The body is somewhat com- 

 pressed on the sides, and gradually tapers from the head to 

 the end of the long cord-like tail. The shin is very soft, smooth, 

 pliant, and mucous, its colour a warm glaucous grey, shaded 

 along the back with dark brown, and on the sides with paler 

 brown shadings of a warmer tint ; the abdomen and under 

 part white, and covered over with very small silvery scales, 

 and reflecting in certain light a very bright glaucous hue, glis- 

 tening like silver. The head is large, thick, sloping from the 

 top of the eyes with a slight curve into a soft, obtuse, rounded 

 snout, which is cleft at the end, and underneath it, and near 

 the centre of the eye, is the rather small mouth. The jaws are 

 furnished with bony plates in the place of teeth — the upper 

 jaw has two, broad, rounded at the inner angle, and behind 

 them are two large, broadly triangular plates which form the 

 roof of the mouth ; the lower jaw is also furnished with two 

 somewhat triangular-shaped plates, the front angles elevated 

 into rounded lobe-like teeth opposite the upper ones, the sides 

 are extended along the edge of the jaw, and entirely lining it 

 with a hard polished plate, which is strengthened with thick- 

 ened, elevated rounded, bands, thus rendering them much more 

 powerful instruments for crushing the food. Eyes large, 

 placed high on the head, prominent, of an oblong shape ; the 

 iris silvery, white, dotted with green points ; the pupil large, 

 prominent, of a glaucous green colour. From the top of the 

 eye the neck ascends to the first dorsal fin, and from this the 

 back descends in nearly a straight line to the tail. The first 

 dorsal fin is placed opposite the pectoral fin, is of a triangular 

 shape, having in front a long, solid, triangular-pointed spine, 

 the angle in front of which is rounded, obtuse, smooth, but the 

 two other angles are sharp-edged, and finely toothed, the teeth 

 pointed downward. The fin is membranous, a greyish brown 

 colour, the margin waved and blackish ; the lower portion is 

 united to the second dorsal fin, which is narrow, of the same 

 width throughout, and extends the whole length of the back 

 to the root of the caudal, terminating in a rounded lobe ; it is 

 of a pale brown colour, with a black margin. The caudal fin is 

 »f the same colour as the dorsal, but narrower, and extends on 

 both sides of the tail, gradually becoming narrower until it is 

 lost in the long pointed 'cord-like tail, which, from its root to 

 the end, is about as long as the rest of the body. The anal 

 fin is at the root of the caudal, small, blackish, fleshy, extended 

 into a narrow lobe. The ventral fins are broad, elliptical, arising 

 on each side of the vent about the middle of the body, they 

 are thick and fleshy at the base, becoming membranous 

 towards the margin, and of a dark brown colour ; from the 

 inner margin close to the body each of these fins has an oblong, 



