Zoological Society, 465 



in the abruptly and steeply arched form of the spinous dorsal ante- 

 riorly, the smallness of the mouth, the slender teeth, and in horn- 

 like protuberances on the fore-part of the orbit, and also on the tip 

 of the snout, the latter formed by the projecting shoulders of the 

 maxillary bones. The Japanese species named zonatus in the ' Hist. 

 des Poissons,' has only twenty-nine articulated rays in the dorsal, 

 and differs in the distribution of its dark bands of colour, which in 

 gibbosus run as follows : — one obliquely backwards over the eye 

 and operculum, another over the nape and tip of the gill-flap, 

 meeting the former at the base of the pectoral ; a third takes in the 

 first three short dorsal spines, and tapers away on the side under the 

 middle of the pectoral ; while a fourth proceeding from a black patch 

 which occupies the fifth and seven following spines, and keeping par- 

 allel to the base of the dorsal, runs along the summit of the back to 

 the tail. In zonatus there are seven or eight dark stripes running 

 obliquely backwards. Both species appear to have spots on the tail. 

 The description of Cheilodactylus gibbosus is drawn up from two 

 Western Australian specimens brought home by Mr. Gould ; and the 

 fish also inhabits the seas of New Zealand, Mr. Gray having recog- 

 nised a drawing by Parkinson of a specimen which was caught in 

 Endeavour River, on Cook's second voyage, as being a correct repre- 

 sentation of this fish. (Vide Banks, Icon. ined. t. 23.) One of Mr. 

 Gould's specimens is deposited in the British Museum, and the other 

 at Haslar Hospital. 



2. Ostracion lenticularis, inermis, ovali-compressus, dorso ven- 

 treque carinatis. 



Radii. P. 12; D. 10; A. 10; C. 11. 



The discovery of this species adds another form to the genus Os- 

 tracion, the shapes enumerated in the ' Regne Animal' being trian- 

 gular with or without spines, quadrangular with or without spines, — 

 and compressed with a keeled belly and scattered spines. In lenti- 

 cularis we have a compressed form with a keeled back and belly and 

 no spines. The compressed Ostracions with scattered spines have been 

 characterized by Mr. Gray as a subgeneric group, under the name 

 of Aracana, and several Van Diemen's Land species were lately de- 

 scribed to the Society by the author of the present paper. The Aracana 

 Reevesii (Gray) from China differs from the Van Diemen's Land 

 species in having the back slightly keeled, and thus forms a transi- 

 tion to the form of lenticularis, in which the sides are convex, the 

 back and belly acute, and the profile elliptical. Lenticularis, though 

 unarmed, exhibits an analogy to the armed Aracana, in the umbones 

 of the reticulated surface being largest where the spines would be 

 situated, did they exist. The species is Australian, and the author 

 expresses his obligations to Dr. Andrew Smith, of Fort Pitt, for the 

 loan of two specimens of different ages. 



3. Anguilla australis. Van Diemen's Land Eel. 

 Anguilla australis, maxilla inferiore longiore, pinna dorsi supra 



anum incipienti, rictu magna . 

 Ann. fy Mag. N. Hist. Vol. viii. 2 H 



