The Hifiory of ANIMALS. 
2 75 
Chcetodon lineis longitudinalibus varius , cauda bifurca. 
The Chcetodon , variegated with longitudinal lines , and with a forked tail. 
The head and body of this fpecies are both greatly comprefled ; the body is very 
broad and thin; the back is acute, but the belly, in the anterior part, is fomewhat 
plane; and the anus is fituated in the middle, between the ventral fins and the pinna 
ani: the mouth is yery fmall, and, when it is fhut, the upper jaw is a little longer 
than the under; there are no beards: the head, from the eyes to the roftrum, is very 
declivous; and the lips may be drawn backward and forward, from the extremity of 
the jaws, with a finger: the noftrils are fituated very near .the eyes, and have each a 
double aperture, of which the anterior is the larger : the eyes (land at the fides, not 
on the top of the head, but they ftand high, and are very near one another; they are * 
large, round, and are covered with the common fkin of the head ; the iris is of a 
bluifh-white : the openings of the gills are fmall and narrow ; there is in each jaw a 
lingle row of white, flender, fubulated teeth ; they ftand contiguous to one another, 
and are ferrated at the point: the palate and the tongue are fmooch. 
The fcales are obtufely quadrangular in figure, and have, at their lower verge, a 
number of fmall uncinulae fcarce perceptible ; at the upper part they are very lightly 
ftriated : the whole body of the fifh is elegantly variegated with longitudinal lines; 
there are on each fide nine of thefe lines of a bluifh colour, with a brown edge on 
each fide of them, fo that there are, as it were, eighteen of thefe brown lines accom¬ 
panying the nine blue ones, and between thefe there are fix broad white ones, fome- 
times feven : on the top of the head there are alfo fome of thefe longitudinal bluifh 
lines: the lateral line is diftinCt from all thefe ; it is very crooked, and runs near the 
back. 
The back fin is of a dufky grey colour, and runs along the whole length of the 
back ; it has thirty-fix rays; nine of thefe are prickly, the reft are foft, and divided at 
the extremities: the pedoral fins ftand nearer the belly than the back, and have each 
ftxteen rays: the ventral fins are oblong and black at the extremity; they ftand lower 
down, or nearer to the anus, than the pe&oral ones; they are fixed down to the belly 
by a membrane, by which they are prevented from being raifed into a perpendicular • 
they have each fix rays, of which the firft is prickly : the pinna ani is whitifh at the 
bafe, but it is_ black all the way ; from this it has twenty-nine rays, of which the 
firft three are prickly : the tail is large and forked, and has fixteen long bones or rays, 
and on the extremity of it there is a large, white, lunated fpot. 
There is on each fide, near the tail, a long and robuft fpine ; this is affixed to the 
body of the fifh, and there is a furrow in the fide, into which it is received. 
This is a native of the American Ocean; but we meet with fpecimens of it dried 
frequently in the cabinets of our collectors. 
Chcetodon nigrefcens cauda albefcente cequali , utrinque aculeata. 
The blackifio Chcetodon , with a white y undivided tail , aculeated on 
each fide . 
The body of this fpecies is broad, in proportion to it’s length : the back is elevated 
and acute; the belly is flatted, and the anus ftands at a middle diftance between the 
pinna ani and the belly fins: the head is of a deprefied form ; the mouth is very fmall, 
and the upper jaw is a little longer than the lower : the lips are moveable, and com- 
pleatly cover the teeth : the eyes are large and round ; they ftand high, and at no great 
diftance from one another; they are round, and their iris is fmall, and of a filvery 
white ; the pupil is very large, round, and bluifh : the noftrils have each a double aper¬ 
ture ; the anterior one larger and round, the hinder a narrow flit; they ftand a little 
below the eyes: the teeth are numerous, flender, and contiguous; they are ferrated at 
the top, and there is a Angle row of them in each jaw; the palate and the tongue are 
fmooth ; the whole head is of a deprefied form, and very declivous from the eyes to 
the roftrum. 
The fcales are fmaller on this fifh than on the other fpecies, and the colour of the 
whole fifh is one uniform, blackifh brown, without any variegations of whatever 
kind : the pedoral fins are grey or hoary; the back fin and the pinna ani are black, 
3 ° n 'y 
