12 



NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



the articulation of the lower-jaw, or posterior margin of the orbit, which are opposite to each 

 other. The anterior suborbitar is marked by five or six flat ridges radiating from a centre, 

 which, when the soft parts are dried up, appear as denticulations on the edge of the bone. 



Gill-covers. — The preoperculum has the form of a thin crescent, with its ascending limb 

 very slightly undulated but entire, and its lower edge deeply serrated, producing six or seven 

 coarse teeth slightly directed forwards. There are some scarcely perceptible crenatures on 

 the edge of the inter operculum. The operculum and suboperculum together form an equi- 

 lateral spherical triangle. The former ends in a pretty strong flat spine, which is the 

 extremity of a thin, though strong ridge, that strengthens the bone internally, but is even 

 with the surface above; the edge of the bone above the spine is cut away by a deep sloping 

 notch, whose upper corner is a thin acute point, situated half an inch behind the tip of the 

 spine, and an inch above and behind the membranous apex of the gill-cover : the under ed°-e 

 of the operculum forms a slightly convex perfectly even line. The suboperculum has, also, an 

 even edge, which is bordered by a membranous flap that extends beyond the spine of the 

 operculum and conceals it. The notch of this bone is also covered by the soft parts. The 

 supra-scapular, scapular, and humeral bones are devoid of the slightest indentation or crena- 

 ture * ; they are also scaleless, but the edge of the upper one is a little waved, and projects 

 slightly on the side of the nape. There are irregular patches of small scales on the posterior 

 part of the frontal bone, the temples, cheeks, operculum, and suboperculum ; the posterior 

 margins of the latter pieces, the whole interoperculum, and the head between and anterior to 

 the orbits, are covered with smooth skin. 



Teeth. — The intermaxillaries are armed posteriorly with a single, close, even row of very 

 short curved teeth, with, on each side of the snout, a long, strong canine tooth, whose point 

 fits into a depression of the lower-jaw ; and on the extremity of the jaw, between the canines, 

 there are five or six smaller conical teeth. On the under-jaw and edges of the palate-bones 

 there is also a row of minute, crowded teeth, and just within them a series of large teeth, 

 similar, and mostly equal in size, to the upper canines : each limb of the lower-jaw contains 

 about twelve of these, and each palate-bone eight: they stand, generally, about the breadth 

 of their bases apart from each other, but the lower canines, or foremost pair on the lower-jaw, 

 are separated by a wider space from those behind, and shut in just anteriorly to the upper 

 canines. The first pair on the palate (one tooth on each bone) is the largest of all. The 

 transverse extremity of the vomer is injured in our specimen, but. it appears to have been fur- 

 nished with small teeth in the middle, and with one larger one on each angle, of which the 

 sockets remain, and are as wide as the sockets of the lateral teeth of the palate f. The vault 

 of the palate is smooth. The tongue has been cut away. 



* In the fig. iu Hist, des Poissons they are serrated. 



•J- In the Hut. des Poiss., this species is simply said to resemble the European Sandrein its dentition. The teeth of the 

 latter are thus described : — " Les machoires sont garnies d'une bande tres-etroite de dents en velours, parmi lesquelles il y en 

 a un rang de coniques et pointues encore assez petites a la machoire superieure, et deja plus grandes a Pinferieure et aux 

 palatins : deux de ces dents aigues en avant a la machoire superieure, quatre a Pinferieure, et deux en avant de chaque 

 palatin plus grandes encore que les autres, forment de veritables canines; mats a la ligne transversale du vomer il n'y en a 

 que de petites en velours. La langue nen a point, elle est libre et douce. Celles des pharyngiens sont en cardes." 



