BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 



251 



V-shaped triserial band of similar dots enclosing the front of the 

 adipose dorsal ; extremity of the tail with numerous densely 

 crowded dots which extend further forwards above than below 

 and are continued on the base of the caudal fin, forming a con- 

 spicuous black blotch; one or two dots above the base of the 

 pectoral; occiput with several, opercle with two or three dots; 

 sometimes a few dots below the eye; lower surface with six pairs 

 of large dark blotches, the last four of which are confluent; a large, 

 quadrangular brown spot on each side of the throat below the 

 opercles; a similar, but round or oblong, spot on each side more 

 or less covered by the pectorals; sides of the abdominal cavity 

 with four large black spots which are confluent below, and show 

 through the translucent skin as bluish bands, the darker colour 

 being apparent only along the edges of the abdominal grooves. 



Washed ashore on the outer beaches in considerable numbers 

 after stormy weather; all the specimens as yet obtained measure 

 from 35 to 42 millimeters. 



Type in the Australian Museum; register number, I. 3670. 



That the specimens from which the above description is taken 

 are immature is apparent from the soft state of the bones, even the 

 vertebral column being incompletely ossified; but the complete 

 absence of a scaly covering* is a character of such importance that 

 I have no hesitation in describing and naming the species and 

 genus as new, the more so that there is no synodont fish known 

 from our coast of which it could be the fry. 



* In Harpodon, a partially scaleless synodont from the tropical Indo- 

 Pacific, the ventral fin is inserted below the dorsal, not well in advance of 

 it as in Goodelia. 



