446 COLONEL MONTAGU ON NEW AND RAKE 



but a trifle longer, though in others it greatlj ex- 

 ceeds the rest ; perhaps a sexual distinction. The 

 pectoral fin has twelve rays : anal eighteen : cau- 

 dal twelve. The ventral fin has certainly three 

 united rays, notwithstanding it has been usually 

 described with only two ; the outer is rather 

 shorter than the inner, and the middle one the 

 longest. In this particular, it also differs from the 

 Gattorugine, whose ventral fin consists only of two 

 rays : the colour of all that have come under ex- 

 amination, was pale rufous-brown, mixed with 

 bluish-grey, and slightly tinged with green in 

 some parts : the sides of the head, throat, and 

 branchiostegous rays, prettily spotted with rufous 

 brown : the dorsal fin is also a little spotted and 

 barred with olive-brown and white ; and between 

 the sixth and eighth ray, is a roundish purple- 

 black spot, sometimes surrounded with white. 

 Hitherto, I have observed, that those with the 

 most perfect ocellated spot, had the first dorsal 

 ray very long. Length nearly four inches ; depth 

 at the gills, about an inch. 



It must be recollected, that B. cor nut us and B. 

 tentacularis, have both an ocellated spot in the 

 dorsal fin ; these may be varieties of the same 

 species, but appear to be distinct from B. ocellaris, 

 whose dorsal and anal fins have not near so many 

 rays in them as the others. 



