PLATE XC^TI. 
mens we rather suspect the general ground colours are darker, of 
more inclining to purple, or reddisli, instead of green, on the sides. 
1 lie whole of the body is covered with a great number of large diftinct 
eval silvery spots, which produce an appearance no less sin<^ular than 
grand in the aspect of the fish ; and what still more contributes to 
Its beauty, is the brilliant colour of the iins, all of which are a hnc 
scarlet. The surface of the skin is remarkably smooth, and covered 
with scales that are scarcely perceptible: the lateral line is irre- 
gular, and somewhat incurvated at the commencement. 
It will be observed, on a slight insiiection of our drawing, that 
some material difference exists between our specimen and those 
represented by former writers. That this difference may have 
arisen from the less perfect condition of the fish examined by those 
writers, rather than from any oversight, we may possibly admit- 
But to say the least, if we are to rely on the figures and description 
that have previously appeared, the specimens they have examined 
must have been defective. In proof of this we need only adduce 
one particular, the preposterous length of the pectoral fins, a circum- 
stance which none of the British writers have mentioned. Those fins, 
in the perfect fish are, so remarkably long, that when placed erect, 
they reach even above the back, insomuch that the tips of both those 
fins are seen in this position, rising above the dorsal fin towards 
the middle of the back. This is a most striking character of the 
fish, and does not appear in any of the figures at present extant that 
we are acquainted with. It should however be remembered, that very 
few of those figures W'hich do occur are original : that which first 
appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, to illustrate the descrip- 
tion given by Dr. Mortimer, is the subject repeated in the British 
Zoology of fvir. Pennant, in the General Zoology of Dr. Shaw, and 
