PISCES THORACICI. CELTTODON. 
69 
REMARKS. 
This is a rich and excellent fish; having the peculiar flavour of such as feed among the rocks. 
It has been accurately described by Forskal who found it in the Red sea. The figure in Renard referred to 
by Gmelin, exhibits an extravagant variation in colour. 
No. LXXNVNI. 
Ch^todon cauda alba , tnincala; spinis dorsalibus tredecem, radiis aliquot pinna dorsi nnitis 
in setam longiorem; corpore viltis obliquis, curvis, caridiis ; aculeo curvo , uaginato, ad 
operculum. 
The Ch^etodon with a white, truncate tail; thirteen spines in the dorsal fin, and some of 
the rays united into a long filiform tail ; the body adorned with oblique, curve 
caerulean lines; a curve, sheathed spine on the operculum. 
Called by the Natives Sai-ini Tchapa. 
■3 j_ ±_ 
B. iii. D. 35. P. 19. V. 6. A. 24. C. 17. 
The body. The form of this fish is singularly clumsy. It is much compressed, very broad towards the tail; 
that is, between the soft portion of the dorsal and anal fins, diminishes slowly towards the obtuse head, and 
terminates in a short, blunt rostrum. The scales small, imbricate, tenacious, margins ciliate, rough. 
The head not large, declivous, much compressed, without scales, roughish. The mouth small; lips very 
thick; jaws extractile, the upper a little longer than the lower; teeth setaceous; tongue ovate, smooth, free. 
Palate tuberculate. The eyes high, forward, large, round. Nostrils double, one before the other, declining 
obliquely from the orbit to the rostrum, the anterior oval, and by much the largest. The opercula without 
scales; striate, rough ; the rounded edge of the anterior lamina, armed with a robust, curve, channeled spine, 
one inch and three lines long, furnished with a sheath, and pointing backwards and upwards. The branchial 
membrane visible; the aperture large, lateral and gular. 
The trunk. The back very gradually arched to the last of the dorsal spines, when it rounds off descending 
almost perpendicularly to the tail. The breast and belly are less arched, but the posterior part rounded and 
bulging out, ascends in like manner as the back descends. The lateral line beginning at a remarkable mark, 
high on the shoulders, bends in a low arch to the middle of the tail. The anus centrical. 
Th efins. The dorsal occupies the back intirely, from the shoulder to the tail. It consists of thirteen 
assurgent, strong, not long, spines, and twenty-two soft rays, the four first of which uniting, form a setaceous 
tail, eight inches in length : the rest of the fin is hardly an inch in breadth, declining very little to the end; the 
pectoral rather short, acuminate above; the ventral long, falcate, ending in a setaceous tail of three inches; the 
anal commencing a little behind the anus, and following the shape of the body, ascends arch-form opposite to 
the dorsal; the caudal fin entire, and like the dorsal and anal, remains expanded after death. The fins, as 
usual, are squamous. 
The colour of the head a reddish orange; of the body, a dull golden, with several curve, azure fillets, which 
are continued on the dorsal fin: two of them, from the front, cross the face and opercula; on each shoulder, 
there is a remarkable square spot, orange in the middle, the sides azure; the dorsal and anal fins are darker 
