SOUTHERN TRACHICHTHTS. 6$ 1 



iris appears to have been of a silvery hue, or as in 

 the generality of fishes. The mouth is destitute of 

 teeth, and the tongue, which is moderately large,- 

 is adnate, or fixed to the lower jaw, to the extremity 

 of which it almost reaches. The opercula or gill- 

 covers are furnished on the upper part with a large^ 

 strong, and rough spine, which is very thick at its 

 base; a smaller and shorter spine also occurs at 

 the lower part : the outline of each operculum is 

 somewhat sinuated by two very short and subacute 

 processes towards the middle; and the remainder 

 is composed of five or six rough-edged lamella? 

 resembling the surface of the body. The membrana 

 hranchiostega has about eight rays, of which the 

 four lowermost are rough-edged, and thicker than 

 the rest. Perhaps no fish yet known, if we except 

 what are called mailed or cataphracted fish, is so 

 strongly coated as the present ; the scales forming 

 a kind of processes, which are so strongly and 

 closely inserted, that it is not possible by means of 

 a forceps to detach one from the rest, without bring- 

 ing away with it a small portion of the corium or 

 general integument itself ; the skin in this respect 

 resembling in some degree that of the genus- 

 Batistes. These scales or processes, as to their 

 general structure, are analogous to those of the 

 Choetodons ; terminating outwardly in a fringe of 

 small, strong spines, besides several scattered ones 

 on the surface. They differ somewhat in shape on 

 differ ent parts of the animal, and as they approach 

 the abdomen become more dilated. The abdomen 

 itself is carinated and cataphracted by a row of 

 eight strong, rough incisures or scales, each of which 



