the Ichthyology of Australia, 389 



Dimensions. inches, lines. 



Height of thirteenth 8^ 



of soft doi'sal 1 



Extreme oblique length of pectorals 3 6 



Length of ventrals 1 9f 



space between pectorals 2 2 



caudal fin 1 5 



. from anus to anal fin 6^ 



ScoLOPSis LONGULUs [Nob,), Scolopsis of Torres Straits. 



No. 32. Mr. Gilbert's collection. 



This Scolopsis was seen by Mr. Gilbert in Port Essington, 

 but in the entrance of the harbour only. It has no striking 

 individual peculiarity by which it can be distinguished from 

 the known members of the genus, though none of the species 

 described in the ' Histoire des Poissons ^ present the same 

 combination of external characters. 



It is an elongated species, the height of its body being only one- 

 fourth of the total length, caudal included. The length of the head 

 rather exceeds the height of the body. The cheeks, operculum, sub- 

 operculum and interoperculum are covered with scales regularly dis- 

 posed in oblique lines. The naked skin goes back on the forehead 

 as far as the posterior quarter of the orbit, and, as in Sc. temporalis, 

 runs out a little on the temple. The preorbitar and limb of the pre- 

 operculum are also naked. The lower edge and rounded angle of 

 the preorbitar are quite entire, the angle does not project, and the 

 ascending edge of the bone is almost straight, being rendered slightly 

 concave, merely by the projection of the spinous point beneath the 

 orbit. The edge of the bone is armed from this point nearly to the 

 angle by about ten small teeth ; there is one small tooth on the se- 

 cond suborbitar, under the middle of the eye, pointing backwards, 

 and five or six minute irregular ones farther back, but no spine on 

 the suborbitar chain which points forwards. The anterior margin 

 of the orbit rises into a small obtuse eminence between the nostrils 

 and the eye, as in the Siganoidea. The preoperculum has a convex 

 under-limb, with a largely rounded angle, both quite entire. The 

 ascending limb is equally and acutely toothed from its upper end 

 to near the round of the angle. None of the teeth are everted. The 

 opercular spine, very short, not pungent and placed high up, bears a 

 strong likeness to the spine of a Helotes. There are no grooves on 

 the operculum, which is entirely covered with scales, concealing com- 

 pletely its junction with the suboperculum. The supra- scapular re- 

 sembles a scale with a strongly toothed edge, and a row of scales, di- 

 stinguished from the others by darker integument and grooved bases, 

 extends from it in an oblique direction across the nape. The naked 

 skin of the head is full of pores. 



The scales of the body are closely and conspicuously toothed on 

 the margin. They are pretty large, there being only thirty-nine in 

 a row between the gill-opening and the caudal, not reckoning a few 

 small ones on the base of the fin ; and thirteen or fourteen in a ver- 



