﻿risHEs— Mcculloch. 21 



Described from the type, 248 mm. long, from Lane Cove, 

 Port Jackson. Two other specimens are in the Macleay 

 Museum without data, and two in the Australian Museum 

 from Port Jackson. 



I am indebted to Professors W. A. Haswell and T. W. E. 

 David for the opportunity of redescribing and figuring 

 Macleay's original specimen. 



It is very probable that the specimen from Port Jackson 

 which Giinther doubtfully identified as M. gyinnotus, Bleeker, 

 is not that species but is M. aiistralis. The two mav be easih 

 distinguished, the latter having but a single row of maxillar} 

 teeth instead of several, and its mouth extending not slightly 

 but far behind the eye. 



Ogilby has proposed the genus ScoJecenchelys^ for this 

 species, and in a letter he informs me that it "differs from 

 MnriBnichthys in the much more slender and elongate bodv 

 and the origin and development of the dorsal fin (as comparing 

 aiistralis with breviceps)." I regard these as specific rather 

 than generic characters. 



MuR.^iNiCHTHVs BREViCEPS, Giinther. 



(Fig- 7-) 

 PMurcenichtliys niacropterus, Klunzinger, Arch. Nat., 

 xxxviii., i., 1872, p. 43 {nee Bleeker). 



Ahircsnichthys breviceps, Giinther, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (4), 

 xvii., 1876, p. 401. 



A small specimen, 195 mm. long, from South Australia, is 

 possibly the young of this species. As will be seen by the 

 figure, its proportions do not quite agree with those of the 

 type, which is twenty inches long, but the differences may 

 perhaps be accounted for by its small size. The following is 

 a description of the "Endeavour" specimen: — 



Body worm-like, the depth 4 in the head. Head 10.8 in the 

 total length and 2.y in the trunk. Eye 2.6 in the snout, which 

 is 4^ in the head. Cleft of the mouth extending far behind the 

 eye and 2.7 in the head; a longitudinal fold below the end of 

 the mouth. Tube of the anterior nostril very large, with a 

 minute external lobe ; flap covering the posterior nostril over- 

 hanging the lip and placed just before the eye. Rows of large 

 widely-spaced pores extend along each jaw, on the upper sur- 

 face of the head and behind the eye. Lateral line arched above 

 the branchial sac. Dorsal and anal fins very low, extending 



1 Ogilby— Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, xxii., 189V, p. 240. 



