XIPHIURUS CAPENSIS. 
green ; of the tail, oil-green with faint shades of brown. The sides, below the 
lateral line, towards the head, imperial-purple, clouded dose to the line with 
a clear deep green, towards the tail with pale brownish red. Sides interiorly 
and belly pale aurora-red, clouded with pale purplish red ; sides of tail 
inferiorly a pale purple, tinged with flesh-red ; space immediately under 
base of pectoral fin, pale king’s-yellow. Pectoral fins aurora-red, shaded 
strongly with hyacinth-red ; the other fin on the back and at the point of the 
tail pale purplish red, the dorsal portion at its base shaded with imperial- 
purple, the anal to nearly the point of the tail light imperial-purple, edged 
towards its anterior extremity with greenish yellow. Eyes pale lemon- 
yellow. Cirrhi, pendent from anterior part of throat, aurora-red, tinted with 
brown. 
Form, &c. — Head long, and rather slender ; body moderately robust, and 
slightly compressed ; abdomen protuberant ; tail narrow, tapered, and com- 
pressed strongly towards its apex. Gape moderately wide. The intermaxil- 
lary bones long, and the teeth towards the point of the jaw much the largest ; 
in the lower jaw, those towards the angle of the mouth the largest. The 
palatine teeth are nearly of the same size as those of the anterior portion of 
the intermaxillary row, those of the vomer, which form the junction between 
the palatal teeth of the two sides, are crowded and rather smaller. Each of the 
rows of large teeth, as well as those on the vomer but particularly the inter- 
maxillary row, has internally, at their base, a stripe of very short and slender 
teeth. Eyes rather large, and directly above the angle of the mouth. Nostrils 
longitudinally ovate, and about midway between the eye and the point of the 
nose. Operculum large; preoperculum rather narrow, with a strong osseous 
spine, towards its hinder edge, a little belowtheupper extremity of the branchial 
opening. Between the rami of the lower jaw, nearly directly under the angle 
of the mouth, there is a small bone included in the surrounding soft parts, 
from which depends two slender feelers, from two to three inches in length. 
These are, by means of a special mechanism, retained either in a vertical or 
horizontal position, according to the will of the fish. Skin of the head smooth 
and without scales, that of the body and tail covered with small subovate 
scales buried in the skin, scarcely imbricate, and not distinctly visible till 
the surface is quite dry. Pectoral fins oval, the central portion of the hinder 
edge rather projecting beyond the line of curve on each side of it, in which 
respect it differs slightly from the pectoral fin of Fig. 2. Dorsal, caudal, and 
anal tins, regularly joined, the anterior portion of the dorsal, and the greater 
part of the anal, rather narrower than the posterior portion of the dorsal and 
the caudal. The lateral line commences at the upper extremity of the 
