Part 25

No. 4 resembles Nos. 2 and 3, but is smaller, measuring one inch five lines in length.

No. 5, the smallest of all the specimens, and measuring only one inch three lines, has the dark markings more developed, especially the angulated fasciæ on the throat, which are almost as distinct as in the B. fasciatus: the spots beneath the dorsal assume the appearance of abbreviated transverse fasciæ reaching from the base of the fin to the median line; and besides the three faintly indicated in the other specimens, there are two others nearer the head, forming altogether a series of five. In this specimen the superciliary filaments are shorter, not exceeding the diameter of the eye.

Habitat, Coquimbo, Chile.

This species differs but slightly from the last, and both may hereafter prove to be mere varieties of the B. biocellatus; but it is desirable for the present to keep them distinct, as, though all found on the same coast, they are from distinct localities on that coast. Also the above five specimens, though varying in the intensity of the markings, have all a ground colour quite different from that of the B. fasciatus, and a peculiarity of aspect immediately noticeable to the eye. Had they been found mixed with that species, the presence of the anal papilla might lead to the suspicion of their being the other sex; but, under the circumstances, this seems hardly probable. They were all taken at Coquimbo.

7. SALARIAS ATLANTICUS. Cuv. et Val.

Salarias atlanticus, Cuv. et Val. Hist. des Poiss. tom. xi. p. 238.

Two individuals of this species were obtained by Mr. Darwin at Porto Praya. They accord in all respects with the descriptions in the “Histoire des Poissons,” excepting as regards the fin-ray formula, in which there is a slight difference observable; and in this respect they are also different from each other.

The larger specimen, measuring three inches seven and a half lines in length, has the fin-ray formula as follows:

D. 13/21; A. 24; C. 13; P. 15; V. 2.

The other, two inches eleven lines in length, has one ray less in the spinous portion of the dorsal, and two more in the soft:

D. 12/23; A. 24; &c.—

It may be mentioned that in this species, as in some others, the last spinous ray in the dorsal is entirely invested by the membrane, and does not attain to the margin, so that in counting, it may be very easily overlooked.

In Mr. Darwin’s notes, it is stated that this species bites very severely, having driven its teeth through the finger of one of the officers in the ship’s company. Its two very long sharp canine teeth at the back of the lower jaw are well calculated to inflict such a wound.

2. SALARIAS QUADRICORNIS. Cuv. et Val.?

Salarias quadricornis, Cuv. et Val. Hist. des Poiss. tom. xi. p. 243. pl. 329.

Mr. Darwin’s collection contains a species of Salarias so closely resembling the S. quadricornis of Cuvier and Valenciennes, that I dare not describe it as distinct. Yet it offers some slight differences as follows:

The profile, instead of being merely vertical, presents a rounded and projecting front between the eyes, advancing further than the mouth (as in the S. gibbifrons, Cuv. et Val.) The filamentous appendages are similar, but the superciliary ones are shorter than the diameter of the eye: the palmated ones at the nostrils consist of six or seven bristles. The occipital crest is hardly so much elevated; its height being not more than one-sixth or one-seventh the height of the head, and only one-third its own length. The height of the dorsal equals at least half the depth of the body; the depth of the notch above the thirteenth spinous ray is rather more than half its height. The fin-ray formula is—

D. 13/21; A. 25; C. 13, &c.; P. 14; V. 2.

The colour, as it appears in spirits, is nearly of a uniform olivaceous brown, with scarce any indication of vertical bands; paler on the abdomen. There are four or five oblique narrow whitish lines on the dorsal, but not very distinct; also two on the anal, more decided: these lines appear to have been bluish, and there are traces of the same colour about the head and gill-covers.

In all other respects it accords exactly with the description in the “Histoire des Poissons,” where it is added, in reference to colour, that this species is subject to much variation. Mr. Darwin’s specimen measures five inches two lines in length. The number attached to it has been lost, so that there is nothing to shew where it was taken. It is probably, however, from the Keeling Islands, as there is in the collection, from that locality, another specimen, which I have little doubt of being the female of the one above noticed.

This second specimen wants the nuchal crest, as is stated to be the case in the female of S. quadricornis. It is not full-sized, measuring only three inches four lines in length, which may account for the proportions being a little different from those of the adult. The depth is one-sixth of the entire length, or rather less. The filamentous appendages resemble those of the first specimen, but the nasal ones have rather fewer bristles. In the form of the head, fins, and all its other characters, it is exactly similar. The fin-ray formula is a little different;

D. 13/20; A. 23; &c.—

The colours, also, as they appear in spirits, are rather different. The general ground of the body is olivaceous grey, but paler than in the male specimen, and inclining to yellowish, with faint indications of vertical bands, and also a few dark spots towards the tail end. Dorsal and anal spotted, the former more so than the latter. Mr. Darwin’s notes, taken from the recent fish, merely state,—“with dull red transverse lines.”

The S. quadricornis is stated by Cuvier and Valenciennes to be very common at the Mauritius, whence it may not improbably range as far eastward as the Keeling Islands.

3. SALARIAS VOMERINUS. Cuv. et Val.?

Salarias vomerinus? Cuv. et Val. Hist. des Poiss. tom. xi. p. 258.

PLATE XVII. Fig. 3.

FORM.—Elongated and compressed, the thickest part being in the region of the gills. Greatest depth contained about six and a half times in the entire length: thickness at the pectorals about two-thirds of the depth, or rather more. Length of the head rather exceeding the depth of the body, and exceeding its own depth by about one-fourth. Snout obtuse; broad and rounded when viewed from above. Lips crenated at the sides of the mouth, but not in the middle. Teeth in the jaws moveable, extremely fine and numerous: two long canines at the bottom of the lower jaw, curving backwards, and fitting into two corresponding holes in the palate: also a transverse row of minute teeth on the front of the vomer. Profile nearly vertical; the eyes placed just within the angle formed by it with the line of the crown. Two broad palmated superciliary filaments, not equal in length to the diameter of the eyes: two similar ones at the nostrils, each consisting of six or eight bristles: also two short simple filaments, one on each side of the nape.