OCR Text |
Show 152 MR. J. D. OGILBY ON FISHES [Mar. 19, dorsal profile, from the tip of the snout to the origin of the caudal fin, forms a graceful and gradual curve, which is more abrupt on the head than on the body ; the ventral profile is flat from the isthmus to the origin of the anal fin, behind which there is a gentle ascent. The lower jaw projects slightly beyond the upper when the mouth is closed. The cleft of the mouth is very oblique ; the maxilla reaches to beneath the posterior edge of the pupil of the eye ; it is exceedingly broad, being no less than three fifths of the diameter of the eye at its hinder margin, while the breadth of the preorbital bears a similar proportion to it. The nostril is provided with two openings, the posterior of which is situated on the anterior margin of the eye, on a line with the upper edge of the pupil, and is of moderate size and round, while the anterior, which is placed midway between the eye and the tip of the snout on a slightly lower level, is oval and very minute. The opercle is armed with three spines, of which the middle is much the longest, while the upper is so small as to be difficult of detection ; the vertical limb of the preopercle is finely serrated, and three or four of the teeth on the rounded angle are much larger and stronger than the others; the horizontal limb is entire. Teeth-there are one or two small canines on the front of each ramus of either jaw, between which are patches of small teeth, separated by a naked space at the symphysis ; behind the canines are small cardiform teeth in a double row anteriorly, but posteriorly in a single row, where, in the lower jaw, they are distinctly longer: the vomerine teeth form a triangular patch, the palatine a narrow band; the tongue is toothless. Fins-the dorsal fin commences above the base of the middle opercular spine ; the spinous portion is much lower than the soft, and its base is about one tenth shorter; the spines are slender, and the variation in length is very slight, the last being the longest, and two and three fourths in the length of the head ; the intervening membrane is deeply notched, and is without a filiform appendage ; the soft portion increases gradually in length to the thirteenth ray, beyond which it descends rather abruptly ; the longest ray is one half longer than the last spine. The third anal spine is the longest, but little shorter than the last dorsal, while its rays are much longer than those of that fin I. The ventral spine is one third longer than that of the anal, and the second ray, which is the longest, reaches only to the vent, and is four fifths of the length of the head. The pectoral fin is elongate and pointed, reaching to opposite the origin of the anal, and equal in length to the head. The caudal fin is deeply forked, with equally developed lobes, none of the rays of which are elongate ; its length is just one fourth of the total. Scales--of moderate size, finely ctenoid, and firmly adherent; the basal half at least of all the fins is scaly, and the entire head is covered with scales, smaller, especially on the snout, than those of the body. The lateral line has a long, gentle curve parallel to the line of the back. Colours-head and anterior half of the body rose-coloured, with a narrow, pale blue line running from 1 In our specimen the fourth and fifth (Bleeker's longest, vide figure in Atl. Ichth. t. vii. pi. xi. fig. 1) rays are broken off close to the base. |