176 CONTRIBUTIONS TO AUSTRALIAN ICHTHYOLOGY, 



Mouth with small, oblique cleft; jaws equal. Premaxillaries 

 protractile; maxillary exposed at the distal extremity only, naked. 

 Small teeth in the jaws; vomer, palatines,* pterygoids, and 

 tongue smooth. Nostrils distant, simple. Eyes moderate, lateral, 

 high. Preopercle entire, with a double ridge ; opercle with two 

 spines. Gill-openings wide ; gill-membranes united in front, free 

 from the isthmus ; six branchiostegals ; pseudobranchipe present; 

 gill-rakers short and few. Two dorsal fins, connected at the base, 

 with vii-viii, i 9 rays, the spinous longer than the soft; anal short, 

 with iii 8 rays; ventrals inserted behind the base of the pectorals, 

 close together, with a strong spine and five soft rays; pectorals 

 rounded, with 12 or 13 rays, the middle the longest; caudal 

 rounded. Vertebrae 12 -H 18 = 30. (Deriv, ign.) 



Fresh-water fishes of small size from West Australia. 



I am by no means sure of the correct position of this genus in 

 the natural system. 



Edelia vittata. 



Edelia vittata, Castelnau, Proc. Zool. & Acclim. Soc. Vict. ii. 

 1873, p. 124; Interior of West Australia. 



? Edelia viridis, Castelnau, I.e. p. 125; Interior of South-western 

 Australia. 



D vii-viii, i 9 A. iii 8. Sc. 29-30/11-12. L.l. 12-15. 



Depth of body 24 to 3i, length of head 31 to 3| in the total 

 length. Dorsal profile more strongly arched than the abdominal; 

 upper profile of head obliquely linear. Snout as long as or a little 

 shorter than the diameter of the eye, which is 3| to 34 in the 

 length of the head. Interorbital region convex, its width 34 to 

 4| in the head. Maxillary not extending to the vertical from 

 the front margin of the eye, its length 3| to 4^ in the head, its 

 width at the distal extremity 3^ to 3| in the diameter of the eye. 

 Three series of scales between the eye and the angle of the pre- 



* Castelnau found teeth on the palatine bones, but I fail to discover 

 them. 



I 



