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head. The general form is almost a regular oval ; the top of the 

 head and the snout have no scales, but all the other parts of the 

 head are covered with them ; on the upper jaw, there is an 

 external row of rather long, slender, conical and blunt teeth, and 

 behind them several irregular rows of smaller, arched and more 

 acute ones ; at the lower jaw, there is only the external row, and 

 the teeth are placed at some distance one from the other. The 

 lateral line is regular, extends to the base of the caudal, and 

 covers about one hundred and twenty scales ; the dorsal fin is 

 formed of sixteen spines, the longest of all being the fourth and the 

 fifth ; the three first going on increasing as they are placed back- 

 wards, the last rays of the fin as short as the first. The second 

 part of the dorsal is formed of one spine and forty rays ; this 

 spine is much longer than the last of the spiny part, but much 

 shorter than the first soft rays, which are even longer than the 

 highest spines ; these rays go on decreasing to the end ; the anal 

 has the same form as the soft dorsal ; it is formed of two spines 

 and thirty-eight rays ; the caudal is very strongly bifurcated ; 

 it has seventeen long rays and four shorter ones on each 

 side ; the pectorals are about one-sixth of the total length of 

 the body, and are formed of eighteen rays ; the ventrals are 

 rather small ; they are placed considerably behind the pectorals, 

 and are formed of one rather long bat slender spine and of five 

 branched rays, the first of which has one-third more than the 

 spine. 



The colours are beautiful. The head is yellow in front, and 

 green behind the eyes, with the sides purple ; the mouth and the 

 throat are of a fine pink ; the back is of a light purplish blue, with 

 numerous narrow golden longitudinal bands, which extend to the 

 root of the caudal, and of which two are broader than the others ; 

 the lower parts of the body are of a whitish pink. The first 

 dorsal has its membranes rosy, but they become darker in their 

 upper part ; the second is of a fine red, with a black external 

 margin ; the anal is similar ; the caudal is greyish in its first 

 half, and black in its external portion ; the ventrals are rather 

 dark, and the pectorals of a dirty yellow ; the eye of a fine orange 

 yellow. 



This fish is known under the name of Bastard Trumpeter ; its 

 flesh is said to be delicate. It is very rarely brought to the 



