188 
SMKAR DAB. 
The Smear Dab in comparison with the Common Dab is a 
larger and thicker fish. The example selected measured ^ in 
length seventeen inches, which is scarcely the utmost to which 
it sometimes attains; aird, including the fins, the same fish was 
nine inches in breadth, but without the fins the breadth is 
trvo parts and a fourth of the whole length. The head small, 
the gape remarkably so, with tumid lips; teetb closely set, 
flat, fifteen or sixteen in number, in regular order. Eyes 
moderately large, near each other, the lowest in advance and 
pressing on the corner of the mouth; anterior nasal orifice 
tubulous and projecting. Body and cheek clothed with smooth 
scales; lateral line slightly arched above the pectoral fin, and 
in one instance the arch interrupted with a depression. The 
dorsal fin begins over the upper eye and ends opposite the 
termination of the anal, not far from the tail, the latter round. 
Pectoral of rather moderate size ; ventral midway between the 
anal and the throat. Colour reddish or yeUowish brown with 
variegations of a deeper colour; under lip red. 
In one instance an example, of which a plate is given, was 
caught with a line, the whole appearance of which was so 
different from that of the Smear Dab as commonly met with, 
that I have felt some doubt whether it should be assigned to 
that species ; and my only reason for concluding it to be so is, 
that it still less resembled any other of the known fishes of 
this genus. The length was fourteen inches, and the breadth, 
including the fins, eight inches and a fourth; the head small, 
the distance fr'om the lips to the borders of the gill-covers two 
inches and a half; lips tumid, gape small, teeth in an even 
row, with broad edges. Eyes large, protuberant, the lower- 
most in advance near the corner of the mouth, the two 
separated by a high ridge, and in front a high triangular space 
which comes over the snout, and is bent across the ridge to 
the other or lower side. The body remarkably thick anteriorly, 
humped on the nape; thinner towards the tail. Lateral line 
gently arched over the pectoral fins, and irregular as it approaches 
the tail; nostrils on the coloured side not sunk, the two pairs 
symmetrical — covered with minuter scales heaped together, slight 
scales on the fins and tail. The dorsal fin begins over the 
upper eye; first rays of the anal embraced by the ventral fins, 
which is not the case with the usual examples of the Smear 
