192 
U. S P. R. E. EXP. AND SURVEYS-—ZOOLOGY—-GENERAL REPORT. 
posteriorly as the ventrals, since they remain in advance of a vertical line intersecting the anus. 
A rudimentary ray may he observed at their upper edge. 
Adult ? Br. V: V; D XYII + I, '10 ; A III, 21; C 3, 1, 6, 6, 1, 4 ; Y I, 5 ; P 16 + 1. 
Young ? D XYI, 11 ; A III, 22 ; ---P 16 + 1. 
Young $ D XVIII, 10 ; A III, 21 ; -—-P 17 + 1. 
The scales are large ; the lateral line being parallel with the dorsal outline. Six or seven 
longitudinal series of scales may he observed upon the anterior region of the hack, between the 
origin of the dorsal fin and the lateral line, and thirteen or fourteen series between the lateral 
line and the insertion of the ventral fins. As usual, they are largest upon the middle of the 
flanks and quite small and irregular upon a narrow strip opposite the base of the anal fin, and 
likewise upon the insertion of the caudal. The dorsal groove extends from the highest spinous 
ray to the fourth or fifth articulated ones ; the sheath being composed of hut one row of scales. 
Upon the cheeks we find three series of scales immediately beneath the orbit, and on the opercle 
four vertical series 
As to the typical scales themselves, they are irregularly sub-elliptical, with the vertical 
diameter greatest; on the abdominal region of the flanks the anterior margin of each scale 
appears to he more truncated than upon the hack and in the lateral line. 
The color of the male sex is uniform dark or purplish brown above, yellowish or olivaceous 
upon the sides, which are spread over with black spots ; the throat and belly being of a yellow 
or golden hue. In the female, the hack is ash colored and the flanks olivaceous, with irregular 
black patches approximating somewhat to interrupted hands across the sides. These hands or 
patches are greatly obliterated upon adult individuals. The fins in both sexes are unicolor, 
greyish black or olive, according to the regions where they occur. 
We have examined three specimens of this species: a pregnant female, five inches in total 
length ; an immature female and an immature male, about three inches long. 
Sixteen young ones were found within the body of the pregnant female. Their average size 
is from an inch and a quarter to nearly one inch and a half. All of them had their heads in 
the same direction as that of the mother, a circumstance for the first time noticed. 
The embryos here described are, according to all probabilities, nearly mature, and were nigh 
coming into the world. Their resemblance to the parent fish is striking. The body, however, 
is more slender, more elongated, the depth entering about three times and a. half in the total 
length. The eye is proportionally much larger than in the adult. The scales are perfectly 
£ 
developed, there being the same number of longitudinal series as in the full grown fish ; the 
dorsal groove and sheath are present. The cheeks and opercular apparatus are already 
protected by their scales. The vertical fins differ somewhat from those of the adult: the 
caudal, in being hut slightly concave upon its posterior margin, and the posterior rays of both 
the dorsal and the anal extending further back, though protruding hut very slightly beyond 
the insertion of the caudal. The same number of spinous rays as in the adult may he seen, and 
the entire spinous portion is exactly similar. 
Upon all these embryos could be seen those black patches approximating to transverse hands, 
which we have described as characteristic of the female sex. The ground color is of a light 
olive in all of them also. Thus, at an early period after their escape from parental care, the 
