58 



TELEOSTEI. ACANTITOPTERYGII. 



brown, and having a few blackish spots ; a dark band traverses 

 the spinose dorsal obliquely and descends between the 6th and 

 7th spines on to the back ; many blotches on fins ; a dark band 

 over last half of caudal ; three narrow dark horizontal bands across 

 lower half of anal ; undivided pectoral rays spotted ; ventral with 

 brown spots. 



Hab. Nicobars to the Malay Archipelago and beyond. 



800. (4.) Scorpaenopsis rosea. (Fig. 22.) 



Scorpsena rosea, Day, P. Z. S. 1807, p. 703; Fish. India, p. 151, 

 pi. xxxvi, fig. 4. 



D. 11 | 1/9-10. P. 6 + xii. A. 3/5. C. 15. L. 1. 43. L. tr. 7/18. 

 Length of head 5, height of body 3 in the total length. Eyes 

 somewhat elevated, with a deep groove below, and anterior and 

 posterior depressions ; interorbital space deeply concave, with an 

 elevated smooth ridge on either side ; diameter of eyes 4 in length 

 of head, 1| from end of snout, and | apart. Snout rather elevated ; 

 a broad fleshy fringed tentacle to the anterior nostril. Above the 

 angle of the preopercle is a ridge with five more backwardly directed 

 spines. Along the angle and lower edge of the preopercle are 

 three denticulations, the superior strong and sharp, the others 



Fig. 22. Scorpcenojjsi/i rosca. 



blunted ; also three fleshy tentacles along its border and one on its 

 surface. Interopercle with a blunt spine and tentacle. Opercle 

 with a central bony ridge ending in two spines. Temporal and 

 occipital ridges spiny. Orbit with a strong spine at its posterior 

 upper, and another at its superior, edge, the last with a long wide 

 tentacle at its base. Several fleshy tentacles on the snout, a large 

 one at the angle of the mouth, and two on the end of the upper 

 jaw ; also three rather large ones on the lower jaw. Fins dorsal 

 spines moderately strong, the third the longest, interspinous 

 membrane rather deeply cleft and extended beyond each spine. 

 Pectoral with its lowest twelve rays unbranched and minute 

 fleshy appendages attached to them. Second and third anal 



