116 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF AUSTRALIAN FISHES, 



not very convex, overlapping the mouth ; the eye is large ; the 

 maxillary reaches the vertical from the posterior margin of the 

 orbit ; the barbel is very short and slender ; the space between the 

 snout and the anus is not quite so long as the anal fin ; fins very 

 scaly. Colour brownish above, whitish beneath, all or nearly all 

 the fins have a blackish margin. 



Port Phillip. Tasmania. 



Family IV. OPHIDIID^. 



Body more or less elongate, naked or scaly. Vertical fins 

 generally united into one ; no separate anterior dorsal or anal ; 

 dorsal occupying the greater portion of the back. Ventral fins 

 rudimentary, or absent, jugular. Gill-openings wide, the gill- 

 membranes not attached to the isthmus. Pyloric appendages 

 none, or in small number. 



Genus Dinematicittiiys, Bleek. 



Body elongate, covered with very small scales. Eye small ; 

 one dorsal and anal fin not continuous with the caudal ; each 

 ventral reduced to a single filament, both close together and 

 inserted at the throat, but behind the isthmus. Bands of teeth 

 in the jaws, on the vomer, and on the palatine bones. Upper 

 jaw scarcely longer than the lower ; barbels none. Six branchi- 

 ostegals ; gill-opening very wide ; pseudobranchias none. An 

 anal papilla. 



Indian Archipelago, California, and Australia. 



770. DlNEMATICIITIIYS MIZOLEPIS, Guntll. 



Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1867, Vol. XX., p. 66. 



D. 83. A. 69. C. 14. L. la*. 90. 



Like D. tluocceteoicles, but the scales much larger. Head naked ; 

 palatine teeth in a long stripe. 



Cape York. Length two inches. 



