FISHES. MCCULLOCH. 107 



Kaup's type of Pegasus lancifer 1 was said to have been 

 collected in Java by Leschenault, but this locality is evidently 

 incorrect. The species is not uncommon in Tasmania and 

 Victoria, and is apparently restricted to temperate waters 2 . 

 Bleeker had no knowledge of it when writing on the 

 fishes of Java, and no later writer has recognised it from the 

 East Indies. We may, therefore, conclude that it is confined 

 to southern Australia and Tasmania 3 . 



Two specimens, 57-07 mm. long, have the following number 

 of fin-rays and osseus rings : D. 5 ; A. 5 ; P. 18 ; V. i. 3 ; 

 C. 8. The first three rings are united and form the carapace ; 

 the seven following are movable, and the next five anchy- 

 losed and forming a flat tail-piece ; the last is minute and 

 movable with the tail. The figure represents the largest 

 specimen, which is from Tasmania. 



Loc. Entrance to Oyster Bay, Tasmania ; 29th July, 

 1909. 



Distrib. Tasmania (Gunther). Derwent Estuary, Tas- 

 mania ; common (Johnston). Hobson Bay, Victoria (Castel- 

 nau). Port Phillip, Victoria ; common (Lucas). Spencer 

 Gulf (Zietz). 



Genus PARAPEGASUS, Dumeril. 



Parapegasus, Dumeril, Hist. Nat. Poiss., ii., 1870, p. 492 

 (Pegasus natans, Linn<eus). 



In this genus the ventrals are composed of two separate 

 rays, the first being composite and large, and the second 

 minute ; the first consists of a spine-like process and two 

 rays fused together. 



1. Both Kaup and Dumeril state that the original figure was prepared 

 from a specimen in the Paris Museum ; Gunther wrongly believed that it 

 was based on a British Museum specimen. 



2. Dumeril refers to a specimen which Kaup examined from Manila, 

 but this was really an example of P. natans, as is clearly stated by Kaup. 



3. -This conclusion is supported by a precisely similar error in the 

 locality of the mollusc, Fissurella javaniciensis, Lamarck (Hist. Anim. s. 

 vert., vi., 1822, p. 14). This was also said to have been collected in Java 

 by Leschenault, but, as noted by Pilsbry (Man. Conch., xii., 1890, p. 188) 

 " the species does not occur within a thousand miles of Java," while Mr. 

 Hedley recognises it as a common Tasmanian mollusc. 



