THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



SUPPLEMENT TO VOL. XI. JULY 1843. 



LXIII. — Contributions to the Ichthyology of Australia. By 

 John Richardson, M.D., F.R.S., &c, Inspector of 

 Hospitals, Haslar. 



[Concluded from p. 428.] 



Leuciscus (Ptycholepis) salmoneus. 



Mugil salmoneus, J. R. Forster, MS. iv. 14. apud Schneid. G. Forster, 

 No. 237. 



Mugil lavaretoides, Solander, Pise. Austr. p. 15. ? 



No. 29. Mr. Gilbert's list. 

 This fish is stated to be in general an inhabitant of deep 

 water, and rarely seen within the harbour of Port Essington, 

 though the natives occasionally spear it close in shore. Mr. 

 Gilbert's specimen was obtained at Point Smith. The exist- 

 ence of this fish in the collection is important, as it serves to 

 rectify a mistake in the e Regne Animal/ ii. p. 324, respecting 

 a species discovered at the island of Tanna by the Forsters. 

 Cuvier's expression is, " L'Elops de la mer des Indes est 

 V Argentina machnata de Forskal, et le Mugil salmoneus de 

 Forster, Bl. Schn. 121, quoiqu'il ne lui donne que quatre 

 rayons branchiaux, je m'en suis assure par sa figure. C'est 

 aussi lejinagow, Russell, 179, &c." Forster's figure measures 

 a foot and a half, within an inch of the length of our speci- 

 men, which it exactly represents, with the single exception of 

 the caudal fin being a trifle smaller. The four gill-rays are 

 correctly drawn, and show that the fish cannot be ranked in 

 the Clupeoid family ; and in fact neither the figure nor the 

 specimen has, even excluding the great dissimilarity of the 

 number of the gill-rays, more than a distant resemblance to 

 the Elops jinagoiv of Russell. 



The following brief notice of a New Zealand fish occurs in the 

 * Pisces Australia? ' : — " Mugil lavaretoides. Piscis dorso e caeruleo- 

 virescens (uti in Harengo), inferne argenteus. In occipite supra et 

 paulo pone oculos area magna ex argenteo sordide virescens, quasi 

 subpellucida. Iris ex argenteo-flava; pupilla parva nigra. Pinnsc 

 ex albido-cinerascentes. Habitat Tolaga." (p. 15.) Though there 

 is nothing in this extract to point out the genus of the fish it alludes 

 to, yet, as both the specific appellation of lavaretoides and the tints 



Ann. $ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xi. Suppl. 2 K 



