BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 657 



distinct all species occupying such widely disconnected areas as, 

 for instance, the north-eastern Atlantic and the south-western 

 Pacific, rather than that they should be united together on the 

 insufficient characters deducible from unique and oftentimes 

 impei'fect specimens. 



Holding these opinions it will not, therefore, be surprising that 

 I shall not attempt to identify our trachypterids with any of 

 those described from the Atlantic and Mediterranean, nor indeed 

 with altivelis, though it is quite possible that they belong to that 

 species.* I think, however, there can lie no reasonable doubt 

 that the individual described by E-amsay from Manly Beach is 

 the adult form of those so beavitifully figured by McCoy from 

 Portland, nor that Hutton's and Johnston's fishes must be placed 

 in the same category with the latter, the dark spots on most of 

 these examples being merely indicative of immaturit}^. 



With araivatcd and the present fish it is more difficult to deal; 

 the contour of the head, and especially the forward position of 

 the nuchal crest in the former, suggests a second species, for 

 McCoy's smallest example was of much the same size as Clarke's, 

 and yet the profile of the head was inclined backwards at almost 

 as great an angle as in his older fish, and the same remark 

 applies to the anterior position of the origin of the dorsal fin in 

 araivatoi. As for the Newcastle specimen, which, if not of the 

 same species, is at least closely allied to jacksoniensis, I have 

 not found any mention of a Trachxjpferus having the head and 

 body dappled ; where the colour markings, if present, are so 

 constant to the same pattern as in these fishes, one is apt to 

 attach greater importance to colour variations than is perhaps 

 warranted by the circumstances of the case. In, therefore, giving 

 the subspecific name polijstictus to the Newcastle fish I only wish 

 to indicate the existence of such a form, since if a similar variety 

 of other species, such as arcticus and trachyptera, is known, the 

 value of this as a difterential character would be greatly dimin- 

 ished. 



* Of T. semiophoriis, as before stated, I have seea no description, and I 

 am not, therefore, in a position to judge of its affinity to our species. 



