1860.] Beport onjsome Fishes received from Sitang Biver. 143 



else than an exceedingly diminutive Zeus (fche genus to which the 

 British ' John Dory,' or Jaime dorée, is referred) ; and both in its 

 uniform dark brovvn colouring,* and its remarkable great humeral 

 spine, specially approximating the Z. pangio, C. V., of the Medi- 

 terranean, figured in the Histoire des Poissons (pl. 280). From the 

 first dorsal, however, which coramences at the middle or highest 

 portion of the baek, the outline of the head and body (as viewed 

 laterally) describes a quarter of a circle, falling vertically at the 

 mouth. The mouth, also, is not protrusile, but the lovver javv 

 extrudes when it is open ; both jaws being apparently furnished with 

 a single row of minute teeth. No scales or lateral line discernible 

 (and the latter would appear to be somevvhat indistinct in the Zeus 

 pangio). The general simpe is nearly as high as long, compressed ; 

 the head broader, and armed with a great tumid frontal casque, 

 adjoining which are several distinct and prominent ovoid plates 

 variously disposed, at the junction of two of which on the gill-cover 

 and directly behind the eye, arises the great lateral spine, which, 

 though directed backward, stands out from the sides of the body and 

 is therefore particularly conspicuous when the fish is viewed from 

 above or below. There are two dorsal fins, distinct though conti- 

 nuous at base ; the anterior having spinous rays, and greatly resem- 

 bling the corresponding fin of Zeus pangio, only proportionally 

 much smaller : all the other fins are distinct and well defined, bufe 

 short and compact, with no rays elongated beyond the rest ; tail 

 slightly ronnded, less so than in Z. pangio, and the ventrals are not 

 elongated as in that species. No proper scales are discernible, but 

 the body is uniformly studded with rough tubercles. 



M. apmatus, nobis, n. s. A minute species, f in. long ininus tha 

 tail, by somevvhat exceeding | in. high minus the fins. As in various 

 other Scomberoids, &c, there is a minute and concealed forward- 

 directed spine (readily ascertained by the sense of touch) anterior to 

 the first dorsal, which latter consists of ten moveable spines, of which 

 the third is longest and the rest are successively shorter, folio wed by 

 a distinct though conterminous fin containing about sixteen soí't 

 rays ; the anal has three short spines, followed by about fourteen 

 flexible rays; the ventrals have one spine and five or six soft rays; 

 * Tkis, however, I since learn is only wheu preserved in spirit. 



u 2 



