404f APPENDIX. 



'CEPHALEPIS ocfomaculatus. 



Anterior dorsal fin with three rays^ the hinder one 

 greatly prolonged and spatulate ; caudal fin very 

 long^ of six rays^ with the membrane extending 

 almost to theh tips. 



This extraordinary fish, named by Professor Rafinesque from 

 the specimen I discovered in Sicily in 1810, requires a more 

 detailed account than what he has given of it. * Its general 

 form and proportions are very similar to that of Trachypterus 

 Spinola (Cuv. pi. 296. ~); but the tail or caudal fin is not in 

 the least vertical, nor are there any spines at its base. 



The first dorsal fin is of three rars : the first not being half so long as 

 the second, and the third double the length of the intermediate ray. They 

 are all connected bv a slight membrane ; but the third ray is prolonged 

 into a filament half as long as the body, and terminates in a spatulate 

 appendage. The ventral fins are remarkably long and pointed, the ra}s 

 rapidly diminishing in length beyond the first, and extending beyond the 

 membrane ; those of the caudal fin are the same, and very little longer 

 than the ventral rays ; the pectoral is very small and rounded. There are 

 three black spots at equal distances along the back, as in Tr. spinolcB, 

 and also a fourth near the belly, between the two first of the upper spots. 

 The second dorsal fin extends the whole length of the back, and is of a 

 paler red than the caudal and ventral fins. The whole of the head and 

 body are richly silvered, without scales, but with a central straight line of 

 small raised tiibercles, extending from the eye to the base of the tail. Two 

 or three specimens cast up on the shores of Messina in 1810, after a 

 violent storm, are the only examples I have either seen or heard of; nor 

 has the species, so far as 1 am aware, been described by any more modern 

 writer. 



CEPHALEPIS Swa'imrmn. Raf. 



Anterior dorsal fin of a single long spatulate ray ; 

 caudal fin of seven long rays^ connected only by a 

 basal membrane. 



All accurate pencil drawing, made from a fresh specimen, is 

 the oiily authority I can now produce for this singular fish, 

 which was communicated to my friend Rafinesque, and de- 

 scribed by him in one of the Sicilian periodicals not now in 

 my possession. 



Its shape, spots, colour, and whole aspect, was so much like the last, that 

 if it had not beer, as the drawing evinces, in an uninjured state, I should 

 have taken if^for the same species, injured by having the two first dorsal 

 rays broken oflf. The additional ray, however, to the caudal fin which 

 this possesses, militates so much against such a supposition, that it is here 

 inserted as distinct The ventral fins in both have seven rays; but in 

 this the anterior dorsal ray is unaccompanied by any smaller ones before 

 it, and the membrane of the caudal extends only to one-fifth the length 

 of the rays. One or two specimens were found cast upon the Messina 

 coast in I'bll. Total length S inches. 



* Indice d'lttiologia Siciliana, p. 5o. 



