184 CONTRIBUTIONS TO AUSTRALIAN ICHTHYOLOGY, 



opercle, inter-maxillary membrane-spot, and small scales that I 

 find no specific difference between the two except in the broader 

 and deeper opercle and the somewhat more numerous dorsal and 

 anal rays. I consider it to be the same as the species figured in 

 the Fauna Japonica, with which, however, the description in that 

 work does not agree."* 



Now with regard to the increased number of dorsal and anal 

 rays mentioned above, if we consult the later diagnosis of C. 

 rubesceiis given by Day,t we shall find that the North Atlantic 

 fish often has more than 70 doi'sal and normally more than 60 

 anal rays; as a differential character this is, therefore, valueless, 

 while the size of the opercle is altogether too insignificant to be 

 relied on, especially when we consider how slight were the data 

 on which the distinguished Dutch ichthyologist founded his 

 opinion. The width or narrowness of the junction between the 

 vertical fins is also of too little importance to be seriously con- 

 sidered, and I therefore think it better to look upon C. macroj)h- 

 thalmus and C. schlegelii as the western and eastern forms of the 

 same species. 



Of the seven remaining species, all of which belong to Acmi- 

 thocepola, no less than four are reported as coming from the seas 

 of Japan, and we may perhaps be permitted to suggest that these 

 have been unduly multiplied. The earliest forms made known from 

 those waters were two fishes figured by Krusenstern, J and sub- 

 sequently named (from the drawings) C. limhata and C. niarginata 

 by Cuvier and Valenciennes. These two were distinguished from 

 the other species known to the French savants by the presence 

 of a black spot anteriorly on the dorsal fin. 



Writing on the subject, Bleeker says (I.e.): — 



" Since then I have discovered that in the Japanese waters at 

 least three species § exist, the descriptions of which I have com- 

 municated here. Not one of these species, however, possesses 



* Bleeker, I.e. 

 t Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland, i. p. 213, 18S3. 

 + Reise, pi. Ix. ff. 1-2. 

 § One f>f thQse, C. sch/eijelii, being a true Cepo/a, does not concern us 

 here. 



