10 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF AUSTRALIAN' EISHES, 



surmounted by a very compressed elevated skinny crest, rounded 

 above, and extending along the top of tbe head from before the 

 vertical from the orbit to close to the origin of the dorsal fin. 

 The posterior rays of the dorsal fin elevated and filamentose. 

 Colour (in spirits) an obscure bluish-red, with darker red blotches 

 on the side ; fins more or less tinged with blackish. 



Port Jackson (Macl. Mus.) Length two and a-half inches. 



Genus Salarias, Cuv. & Yal. 



Body moderately elongate, naked ; snout short, with the cleft 

 of the mouth transverse ; a series of numerous email teeth in the 

 jaws, implanted in the gum and movable ; generally a curved 

 canine tooth on each side of the lower jaw. Dorsal fin continuous 

 sometimes divided into two portions by a notch ; ventrals jugular, 

 with two, three, or four rays. Tentacle above the orbit more or 

 less developed. Gill-opening wide ; pseudobranchiaj. Branchi- 

 ostegals six. Air-bladder and pyloric appendages absent. 



All warm Seas. 



560. Salarias easciatus, Bl. 



Gunth., Cat. Fishes III., p. 244.— Journ. Mus. Godef., Heft. 

 XIII., p. 201, pi. 115, fig. H. 



D. 12/18-19. A. 19-21. 

 Height of body one-fifth of the total length, length of head 

 about one-sixth. Anterior profile nearly vertical ; no canine 

 teeth ; a pair of fringed tentacles above the orbits, another on the 

 nape ; crest none. The dorsal fin is not notched, begins in the 

 vertical from the extremity of the operculum, and is continuous 

 with the caudal fin. The anterior anal rays are sometimes semi- 

 detached and elongate. Brown, irregularly variegated, spotted 

 and dotted with yellow and blue ; immature specimens with eight 

 brown vertical bands ; throat and chest with three yellowish 

 cross-bands, several whitish spots before the root of the pectoral. 



Cape Grenville (Chevert Exp.) 



