PARASCYLLIUM COLLARE. 67 



Parascyllium variolatum. 



He.miscyllium variolatum Dumeril, 1853, Rev. et mag. zool., p. 121, pi. 3, f. 1; 1865, Elasm., p. 327. 



Parascyllium nuchale McCoy, 1874, Ann. mag. nat. hist., ser. 4, 13, p. 15, pi. 2. 



Parascyllium variolatum Gill, 1861, Ann. N. Y. lye., 7, p. 413; Regan, 1908, Proc. Zool. soc. Lond., p. 349. 



Slender, elongate; caudal region very long; head short; snout short, 

 bluntly rounded. Nostrils large, connected with the mouth by a nasoral groove; 

 anterior valves reaching the lip, widely separated by the preoral attachment, 

 with short cirri. Mouth small, midway from eye to end of snout, with labial 

 folds around the angle, without a geneial fold across the chin. Teeth small, 

 tricuspid, in young. Gill openings small, fourth and fifth close together above 

 the pectoral, fifth widest. Fins small; dorsals subequal, first above middle of 

 space between ventrals and anal, near the total mid length; second little smaller, 

 almost entirely behind the anal; pectorals short and broad; Ventrals entirely 

 forward of the dorsal; end of base of anal little behind origin of second dorsal. 

 Caudal short, narrow, not lobed. 



Brown with spots of black. On the type, a young individual, the spots are 

 rather large and distinct in the vertebral series and on the fins ; on the body and 

 in a dark band across the nape there are numerous irregular maculae of lighter 

 color. 



Type, about 14 inches long, from Australian waters. 



Parascyllium collare. 



Parascyllium collare Ramsay & Ogilby, 1889, Proc. Linn. soc. N. S. W., ser. 2, 3, p. 1310; Waite, 1899, 



Mem. Austr. mus., 4, p. 32, pi. 2, f. 2; Regan, 1908, Proc. Zool. soc. Lond., p. 349. 

 Parascyllium variolatum Gunth., 1870, Cat. fishes Brit, mus., 8, p. 410. 



In some respects it appears as if this species was founded on adults of 

 the preceding. Hardly any divergence is to be seen in the positions and the 

 sizes of the fins, and the differences in coloration are such as might well be 

 brought about by difference in ages. The individual figured by Waite, 1899, 

 was thirty-three and a quarter inches in length, more than twice the length of 

 the type of P. variolatum; according to this author it was yellowish tinged with 

 brown, had eight cross-bands, two of which were situated on the tail, and the 

 under parts were yellow. His figure places the first and more distinct band 

 across the nape, the second behind the pectorals, the third from ventral to 

 ventral, the fourth at the end of the base of the first dorsal, the fifth above the 

 anal, and the sixth at the end of the base of the second dorsal. Between the 



