198 DESCRIPTION OF A NEW LABROID FISH, 



Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard 

 CoUege, Vol. 8, No. 2. 



Bremen Society of Natural History, Eeport for 1880. 



Eoyal Microscopical Society, London, Vol. 3, Nos. 6 and 6a. 



Meteorological Observations, Sydney, 1876 — 1879. 



Eeport of the Auckland Museum, 1880. 



PAPERS READ. 



Description of a new Labroid Fish of the G-enus Novacula, 



from Port Jackson. 



ByE. P. Eamsay, F.L.S., C.M.Z.S., &c. 



Fam. LABEID^S. 



Novacula jacksonensis, sp. nov. 



D. 2/7-12. A. 3-12. V. 1-5. Lat. line 28. 



Indications of scales on the cheek ; orbits and snout bare ; the 

 two anterior dorsal spines flexible, produced — the second slightly 

 longer than the first, quite separate from the rest of the rays ; 

 the third shorter than the first ; the anterior contour of the head 

 parabolic, edge sharp. The eye four and one-fourth diameters 

 in the head, the head four and one-third lengths in the total ; 

 the height of the body is about three times and one-third in the 

 total length, its greatest height is opposite the ventral fins. The 

 outer ventral ray is produced, reaching nearly to the anal. Anal 

 rays twelve, the spines three, the first short and weak, the third 

 the longest. Caudal fin rounded, the outermost rays on either 

 side very short ; the last anal ray reaching to the base of the 

 caudal. Pectoral fin five-sevenths the length of the head. 

 Lateral line interrupted on the twenty-second scale, continued on 

 the third row lower down on the body, over six scales, but 

 not on to the tail, terminating two rows in front of the tail; 

 from the vent there are ten to eleven rows below the lateral line 

 and three to four rows above it ; there are thirty scales along the 



