48 
PISCES THORACICI. ZEUS. 
tongue and palate smooth. Eyes middle, in respect to the mouth; moderate size, orbicular. Nostrils double, 
distant from the orbit. Opercula polished, silvery; the branchial membrane exposed. 
The trunk. The back gently arched; the breast and belly declivous to the ventral fin, whence the hinder 
part ascended circularly to the tail; both were thin and carinated; the sides much compressed. The lateral 
line rising from the acuminate edge of the operculum, was hardly bent, and terminated unusually at the upper 
edge of the tail. The anus nearly middle. 
The fuis were all simple, and in other respects differ remarkably from others of this genus. The first 
twenty rays of the dorsal, slender, and declined gradually, the last twenty five nearly equal in length, capilla- 
ceous, and hardly connected by any membrane. The pectoral fins situated close to the branchial apertures, of 
moderate length, and the rays declined from the upper part; the single ventrical fin, close to the anus, had two 
setaceous rays united, nearly two inches in length, with four very short capillary rays; the anal consisted of 
thirty-four short pinnulae, fringing, as it were, the posterior lower edge of the fish; the caudal fin deeply bifid. 
The colour of the back leaden, with several rows of dark spots of various sizes; below which, the sides and 
belly roughly silverized, resembling the back of a mirror, but the colour, on handling adheres to the finger. 
The head and opercula are also silvery, but burnished. 
The length four inches, the breadth three. 
REMARKS. 
Not being acquainted, when in India, with the Zeus insidiator, which appears to have been described and 
transmitted from India by Dr. Koenig; and of which a figure has been given by Bloch ;* I was at a loss to 
what genus to refer the present subject, and the seven fishes following, all which agree in the singular con¬ 
struction of the jaws, with the Insidiator, though differing widely in other respects. 
The Zeus ore angusto of Bloch, (Insidiator Gmel. Linn. p. 1221) has seven branchial ossicles, and the fins 
have some spinous rays: it is, besides, a fresh-water fish. The present subject has only five branchial ossicles, 
no spinous rays in the fins, and, as well as the rest following, are caught in the sea. 
The affinity of all, however, in the protrusion of the jaws, and (the present and another excepted) in the 
similitude in shape to others of this genus, has procured them a place here: at least for the present. 
No. LXI. 
Zeus corpore rhombeo, squamoso; cauda bifida; spinis dorsalibus octo; membrana pinna dorsalis 
antice, macula insignita. 
The Zeus with a rhombic, squamous body; a forked tail; eight spines in the dorsal fin, 
and the fore part of the membrane marked with a large spot. 
Called by the Natives Goomorah Karah. 
8 _L _L_ 
JB.iv. D. 24. P. 15. V.6. A. 17. C. 18. 
The body broad-ovate, or somewhat rhomb-form, much compressed, thin, resplendent; scales extremely small, 
close, tenacious. 
The head declivous, broad thin, without scales, polished; front a little depressed; crown carinate, rostrum 
obtuse. 
The mouth small, but the maxillae so constructed, as to render it extractile and retractile, in an uncom¬ 
mon degree. There were no lips. The cheeks composed of fine, glassy, membranes, and the thin cartilages 
* PI. 192. 
