60 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Form. — The head is much compressed, the eyes large, lateral, and closely approximated,, 

 as in Hemilepidotus. The intermaxillaries appear to be capable of some protrusion, and to 

 be connected with the snout by a whitish membrane ; immediately behind which, on the 

 upper surface of the snout, there is a pair of brown, short, cylindrical processes, and before the 

 eyes two pairs of white ones, all of them said to be tubular. There are three pairs of short, 

 slender, acute barbels on the lower jaw; a thick one with a fringed end on the lower extre- 

 mity of the labial, and one like it, though smaller, on the lower part of the cheek. The plate 

 also represents six prominent, obtuse, though small teeth (or, perhaps, barbels) on the margin 

 of the sub-orbitar bone ; three large acute teeth, or spines, and two intervening small ones, on 

 the preoperculum ; a notch on the margin of the suboperculum ; and an acute angular tip "to 

 the gill-cover. The head is entirely naked ; but the body is covered with large tiled scales, 

 which are described as being roundish, finely toothed, and biggest on the sides, where there 

 are fifty-eight in a longitudinal row. The form of the body is that of a Hemilepidotus, or 

 Scorpsena, exclusive of the greatly-inflated stomach or belly, which is pendulous and hemi- 

 spherical. The dorsal fin commences a very short way behind the nape, and extends nearly to 

 the caudal : it is supported by thirty-one rays, all spinous, and is notched anterior to the twelfth 

 ray, by the gradual decrease of the six preceding ones. There is another, but less decided 

 notch at the third ray, the membrane of which reaches only to the middle of the following 

 ray. The rays of the anal, pectorals, and ventrals, are also represented as spinous, or at least 

 simple, the caudal ones alone being forked at the tips. The ventrals are long and slender, 

 and are supported by five rays, the first of which is short and closely applied to the next. 

 The caudal is slightly rounded at the end. 



Fins.— Br. 5; D. 31/; P. 16/; V. 5/; A. 16/; C. 11*. 



Colour. — The head is mostly brown, the body is also brown, with scattered darker spots, 

 and four transverse, broad, waved red bands, the first of them crossing just before the dorsal : 

 there is also an imperfect band, or large patch, of the same colour, between the dorsal and 

 upper base of the caudal. The belly is white, studded laterally with brown spots, which 

 towards its middle diminish to specks. The dorsal, anal, and caudal are reddish, the two 

 former being marbled with brown. The pectorals are marked transversely with three dark 

 reddish-brown bars, and as many alternate pale ones. 



