| OCR Text |
Show 1890.] SPECIES O F FISHES F R O M M A D E I R A . 459 rictus is oblique and extends much beyond the eye. The inside of the mouth and the gill-covers is black. There are no pseudo-branchia). The under jaw for the greater part of its length fits inside the upper, and it carries a row of sharp, curved, conical teeth, with a few small ones in the intervals between them. In front there is an outer row of eight similar, but shorter teeth. In the upper jaw there is only one row of similarly shaped teeth in front; then come three on each side, the longest in the mouth, and these are about 3 millim. in length. Posteriorly the longer teeth become smaller and the intervening teeth very small. There are a few teeth on the vomer; on the palatines a row of minute sharp teeth; a patch of minute teeth on the entopterygoids ; and at the tip of the very small tongue a few minute teeth. The dorsal fin is placed at the middle of the back over the space between the ventral and anal. It has 11 rays and its base is 11 mm. long. It is rather injured, but what remains has a height of 13 mm. There is no adipose fin, nor are there any spines behind the dorsal or anal. The pointed pectorals have ten rays, are inserted low down, and do not reach so far back as the root of the ventrals. The narrow pointed abdominal ventrals contain 8 rays and reach back beyond the beginning of the anal; they are shorter than the pectorals. The anal is not so high as the dorsal, but its base is longer ; it has about 33 rays. The deeply cleft caudal is damaged, but as it is it measures 14 m m. The lateral line begins near the edge of the opercle one third of the height from the outline of the back, and falls gently until it reaches the middle of the height under the dorsal; it then runs straight to the base of the caudal. The scales having been removed could not be counted. The two rows of spots previously mentioned are closely set low down on each side of the belly. The upper row, on which between 60 and 70 spots may be counted, begins at the throat and is continued to the base of the caudal; the lower row runs along the isthmus between the gill-openings and likewise extends to the caudal. A single specimen of this fish was obtained in the fish-market at Funchal and is now in the British Museum. It may be readily distinguished from the known species of this genus by the number of its anal rays. millim. Length of fish without the caudal 130 Height at root of pectoral 21 Height of tail at base of caudal 7 Thickness at the shoulder 8 or 9 Head, length 25 mm., thickness 8 Eye, diameter ° Dorsal fin, length of base 11 Pectorals, length 20 Pectorals, distance of root from snout . . 30 Ventrals, length • • • 14 Ventrals, distance of root from snout.... 66 Anal, length of base 41 |
