652 ON A TRACHYPTERUS FROM N.S.W., 



Coloration : — Silvery, suffused with a darker gray above, the 

 entire head and body ornamented with numerous well-marked 

 bluish spots. 



The specimen measures about 140 millimeters to the base of 

 the caudal fin and was found on the beach near Newcastle. 



Comparing this description with those of my jDredecessors, as 

 referred to in the list which I have given above, we find that 

 (1) in the Auckland Museum specimen the only character of any 

 value for specific distinction mentioned by Hutton is that the 

 dorsal rays number about two hundred. ■^•' The few other 

 characters mentioned would, roughly speaking, apply equally well 

 to any member of the genus ; this example measured twenty 

 inches. 



(2) Hutton's second specimen, of which no details are given, 

 only served to confirm that author in the belief that the New 

 Zealand species was identical with that of the south-eastern 

 Pacific. 



(3) With the publication of Clarke's paper we hail the first 

 attempt at an oi'iginal detailed description of an Australasian 

 Trachypterus, and it, therefore, merits more careful analysis. 

 That author was exceptionally fortunate in obtaining his specimen 

 in absolutely perfect condition, the fish, which measured about 

 three and a half inches, having been taken "in a pool at high- 

 water mark " where it " had evidently been embayed on the tide 

 retiring;" it was subsequently placed "in a tin full of sea-water, 

 in which it lived for some short time." 



Omitting for the present all reference to the fins, our attention 

 is immediately drawn, on comparing our specimen with Clarke's 

 figure, to the great dissimilarity in the shape of the head and the 

 contour of the body between the two fishes. The almost vertical 

 antero-superior profile of the head in araicatce is markedly 

 different from that of the New South Wales fish which is inclined 

 backwards at an angle of about forty-five degrees to the longi- 



* Tlie importance of this character is denied by McCoy, to wiiose views 

 I shall have occasion to allude later on. 



