TRUMPET-FISH. 
23 
teeth of a saw; there are three or four projections, very small, 
under the belly, which are hard, round, and transparent; the 
fins are whitish; the tail divided.” 
This description, imperfect as it is, might serve as sufficient 
to distinguish this fish from others, if it were not that we 
perceive from published figures that it is subject to some 
variety, and that a species much resembling it, but supposed 
to be distinct, has been discovered in the Mediterranean. The 
denticulations which we represent on the abdominal ridge — ^ 
perhaps a little too strongly, if we may judge from the des- 
cription given above — and of which Donovan and Mr. Yarrell 
take no notice, are a remarkable instance of this variation, as 
IS also the form of the tail, which these two last-named 
observers represent as round, but which in our figure and the 
original description is described as divided. The other species 
that we have referred to, (C. gracilis of Lowe and Gunther,) 
and which has not only been found in the Mediterranean and 
Madeira, but even in Japan, is only different from C. scolopax 
in being somewhat longer in proportion to its depth, in having 
a much shorter dorsal spine, and conspicuously smaller scales. 
For a fuller description of our own Trumpet-fish than is 
given above, we select the following notes from Willoughby, 
p. 160: The body is covered with rough scales; snout very 
long, straight, narrow, growing wider towards the head; the 
mouth narrow and covered, in fact, by the small under jaw, 
the angle of which is depressed. Eyes large; belly with a 
sharp ridge; without ventral tins, which however are marked 
by two bones resembling teeth. A little behind this, on the 
middle of the beUy, is a ridge haiung some small elevated 
teeth. Anal fin with eighteen rays. Dorsal fins two, placed 
far behind, the first being formed principally of one long and 
stout spine, which is capable of some motion upward and 
downward, but cannot be raised upright. On its under side 
is a channel, on each side of which is a row of teeth. In 
front of this larger spine is a very small one, and behind it 
three others. The second dorsal has twelve rays; the tall 
forked. 
