smvE CENTRiscus. 45g 



body is terminated, beneath the mailed coating, 

 by three fms or processes, the middle of which is 

 rather longer than the others, being seated on a 

 kind of lengthened base: the back is of a fme dark- 

 ferruginous brown colour, accompanied by a gilded 

 tinge ; the sides are yellowish, with a cast of silver, 

 and the abdomen reddish, the divisions of the shield 

 being marked by so many transverse white lines : 

 the whole fish is semitransparent, and appears as if 

 inclosed in a sheath or case of the fmest tortoise- 

 shell. It arrives at the lengtli of six or eight inches, 

 and is a native of the Indian seas, where it is sup- 

 posed to live on the smaller kinds of marine insects, 

 M^orms, &c. 



SNIPE CENTRiscus. 



Centriscus Scolopax. C.firruginem squamosus. 

 Ferruginous scaly Centriscus. 



Centriscus Scolopax. C. corpore squamosa scabrOy cauda recta 



extensa, Lin. Syst, Nat. 

 Centriscus squamosus. Block, t. 123. 

 Balistes Scojopax. Artedi. 



I^ENGTH from four to six or eight inches : shape 

 long-oval; snout greatly lengthened: body cover- 

 ed with numerous, small, pointed-scales : colour 

 rufous-brown above, paler beneath, with a slight 

 silvery cast on the sides : dorsal fm subtriangular, 

 and furnished with a very thick and strongly ser- 

 rated spine : second smaller, and slightly rounded : 

 pectoral and ventral fms rather small: anal shallow: 



