760 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN FISHES 



Back blue, sides golden, the colours passing gradually into one 

 another; upper surface of head gray, the dorsal profile of the 

 snout and the extremity of the jaws reddish-brown : dorsal and 

 caudal with some dark dots : iris golden. 



Etymology : — arepeos, firm or adherent ; Xenls, scale : so 

 named in allusion to the adherence of the scales which can only 

 be removed with the exercise of considerable force. 



Distribution: — ^^Torres Straits; Darnley Island; ? South- 

 eastei'n New Guinea. 



Type : — In the Macleay Museum, Sydney University. 



This pretty little herring appears to be common in Torres 

 Straits, whence numerous- specimens now in the University 

 Museum came; others ai*e in the collection of the Australian 

 Museum, but I cannot find any record of them. ]My largest 

 example is 108 millimeters in length. 



AUeyne and ]\tacleay write of them thus : — " This fish was 

 seen in enormous shoals at Darnley Island during the fortnight 

 which the Chevert lay there. At that time — the early part of 

 August — the whole northern shore of the island was literal! v 

 black with them, and there would have been no ditficulty, with 

 proper appliances, in preser^'ing hundreds of tons of these finest 

 of all sardines." 



Decapterus leptosomus, sp.nov, 



D. viii, i 33-36 i. A ii, i 25-28 i. L. 1 115-117. 



Body moderate!}' compressed, its width li to If in its depth; 

 depth of body 5^ to 6, length of head 3| to i in the total length; 

 depth of head 1§ to 14, width of interorbital region 4 to 4i, 

 diameter of eye 3^ to 3^ in the length of the head; snout narrow 

 and compressed, a little longer than the diameter of the eye ; 

 interorbital region flat; a feeble occipital kee!. Maxillary extend- 

 ing to or not quite to the anterior border of the eye, its length 

 from the tip of the snout 2| to 2i, that of the mandible 21 to 2| 

 in the head; width of maxillaiy 2J to 3 in its length. Upper 

 jaw toothless, lower with a single series of small teeth; vomer 



