GADOIDE^E. 251 



dorsals and anal are, as in all fish, double, but they are most visibly so at their bases, their 

 summits spreading very slightly. The caudal fin is obovate, its extremity being nearly semi- 

 circular. It takes its origin in contact with the second dorsal and anal, but its form renders 

 it sufficiently distinct : it contains fifty rays, the four central ones attached to the end of the 

 vertebral column, the others to slender distinct interspinous bones, nine of the rays of the base 

 above and below gradually increase in length, the other thirty-two are nearly equal to each 

 other, but originating on the lanceolate tail give the peculiar form to the fin. 



Colour. — Head and back dull chestnut brown tending to yellowish-brown, the back mar- 

 bled with lighter spots : belly orange-white, becoming grey towards the sides by the aspersion 

 of dark brown specks. Ventrals white. 



Intestines. 

 The wide oesophagus is lined by a white membrane having longitudinal folds : the stomach 

 is distinguished from it by still greater width, a stronger muscular coat, and by the red- 

 dish colour of its lining, which also presents more numerous and somewhat convoluted folds. 

 The very small pylorus is so situated as to leave one half of the stomach in form of a 

 cul de sac. An inch from the stomach the caeca, about sixty in number, encircle the intes- 

 tine, uniting into ten large trunks whose orifices are close to each other: they are filled with 

 thin feculent matter. The intestine gradually diminishes in calibre, and its coats become 

 weaker towards the anus ; next which, however, there is a more muscular portion with an 

 approach to a valvular apparatus at its origin, formed by a contraction of the muscular coat, 

 and a corresponding projection of the lining of the canal. The whole alimentary canal makes 

 two convolutions, and its length to that of the fish, excluding the caudal fin, is as thirty-eight 

 to twenty-two. The liver has a cream-yellow colour tinged with flesh-red : its -ransverse 

 diameter is the greatest, and it has a small central triangular flap or lobe ; it was observed, 

 however, that the size and form of the liver varied considerably in different individuals. The 

 gall-duct terminates in the intestine below the openings of the caeca ; there is a dilatation in 

 it equal in size to the gall-bladder itself. The spleen is situated near the rectum. The air- 

 bladder has two short horns at its upper end, and its lining is encrusted by a number of stel- 

 liform fatty substances. The firm cordiform kidneys are lodged in a sac between the spine 

 and lower end of the air-bladder. The urinary bladder is strong and muscular. 



Dimensions. 



Inches. Lines. 



Length from end of snout to end of caudal fin 21 9 Length of attachment of 1st dorsal . 



„ ., tip of tail ... 20 4 „ „ 2nd ditto 



„ „ end of dorsal and anal fins 18 10 „ „ anal. 



„ ,, anus .... 10 3 „ rays of 2nd dorsal, about 



„ „ commencement of 1st dorsal 7 10 „ „ anal 



„ „ edge of gill-cover . . 3 10 „ central rays of caudal . 



„ ,, nape .... 2 5^ „ from bases of caudal to its end 



„ of intermaxillaries ... 1 2£ Greatest girth of body 



„ labials .... 8 Length of aliment, canal from gullet to anus 35 



„ lower jaw .... 2 „ from gullet to pylorus 



„ pectoral fin ... 2 3 ,, pylorus to rectum . . 



,, ventrals .... 1 4 „ of rectum .... 



2k2 



Inches. 



Lines. 



1 



5 



9 



6 



8 



6 



1 



1 







11 



1 



7 



3 



2 



10 



4 



35 



1 



4 







29 



1 



2 







