Note 19 — ACANTHOPTERYGII. (continued 2)

Since the above was printed, Mr. Waterhouse has been kind enough to show me in the museum of the Zoological Society the specimen which he believes to be the one procured by Mr. Cuming. Unless the characters are very much altered by age, it is decidedly distinct from the A. hispidus above described. The general form indeed is the same; but the skin is perfectly smooth, marked with vertical striæ; the granulated ridges on the head are less prominent, and the superciliary ridges without spines. The fin-ray formula is not quite as stated by Mr. Bennett, who appears, in his computation, to have mistaken the last dorsal spine for one of the soft rays of that fin, and also to have over-estimated the number of soft rays in the anal. The formula is really 18/12; A. 1/9, &c. I have no doubt of Mr. Cuming’s fish being the true A. Peruvianus; whilst the one here characterized as new is probably the young of a nearly allied species. Mr. Cuming’s specimen is six and a half inches long.

It may be advantageous to science to mention here, though not immediately connected with the present inquiry, that another species of Agriopus in the museum of the Zoological Society, which was seen by M. Valenciennes during his visit to this country, and referred by him in the “Histoire des Poissons” to the A. verrucosus, proves not to be that species, but the A. spinifer of Dr. Smith, recently described by him for the first time in his “Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa.”