1849.] Catalogue of Malayan Fishes. 1329 



a little distance beneath the back and behind the pectorals, each scale 

 is provided with a central, backwards arched, small but strong spine, 

 forming longitudinal series, of which upwards of 20 may be counted 

 between the posterior dorsal and the anal, 10 on the tail. At the lower 

 part of the dewlap these spines appear in clusters of from three to 

 five. 



The stomach is capacious, elongated ; it contained remains of fish ; 

 (in several, of Exocoetus nigripennis, Cuv. and Val.) The intestinal 

 canal is wide, contained about If times in the total length. The liver is 

 large ; the right lobe consists of two elongated portions ; the left is 

 broader and deeply cleft. The gall-bladder is large, ovoid, expanded 

 with a whitish green fluid ; the spleen is small. The silvery air-vessel 

 is elongated oval, occupying the upper part of the abdominal cavity. 

 At Pinang and Singapore this species is numerous at all seasons. 



Gen. Monacanthus, Cuvier, 1817. 

 Scales small, covered with stiff asperities, close like velvet ; extre- 

 mity of the pelvis salient and spinous ; anterior dorsal fin with a large 

 prickly spine, and a second almost imperceptible. 



Monacanthus tomentosus, (Linne.) 



Seba: III. Tab. XXIV. Fig. 18. 



Gronov. Mus. Tab. VI. Fig. 5. 



Balistes tomentosus, Linne : Syst. 1463.* 



Balistes tomentosus, Shaw, V. 401, PI. 169. 



Monacanthus tomentosus, Cuvier, R, A. II. 373 ( 2 ) 



(Young.) Yellow ; dewlap washed with grey ; except the throat and 

 dewlap, the rest of the body with numerous small rounded cobalt blue 

 spots ; first dorsal spine yellow with three blackish rings, membrane 

 bluish white minutely dotted with brown ; posterior dorsal, anal and 

 pectorals yellowish, transparent ; caudal rays whitish, membrane black. 

 Iris pale golden, orbital margin blackish. 



D 2—31, C 10|, A 28, P 12, Br. VI. 



Habit. — Sea of Pinang, 

 Indian Ocean. 



Total length : 3f inch. 



* Distinct from Balistes tomentosus, Bloch, PI. 148, which Cuvier refers to 

 Pira aca, Marcgr. 154. Mr. Swainson quotes the species of Bloch, (Sw. II. 327.) 



8 H 2 



