Zoology.-] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [^Fishes. 



The genus Gadopsis is one of the most extraordinary genera of 

 fishes known, as furnishing an intermediate type between the Acan- 

 thopterigious fishes, in which the anterior rays of the dorsal fin are 

 simple spines, and the scales usually ctenoid, and the Malacopteri- 

 gious fishes, in which all the rays are soft and branched, and the 

 scales usually cycloid : here, the cycloid scales, the general form, 

 the imperfect, filamentous, jugular, ventral fins, and the majority of 

 the characters so nearly agree with the Malacopterigious fishes, 

 that all the most recent writers, with Dr. Giinther, classify it mth 

 the Anacanthini (agreeing generally with the Malacopterigii of 

 older writers), although the anterior rays of the dorsal and anal 

 fins are distinctly spinous. 



As Dr. Richardson states that the head of his Gadopsis inar- 

 moratus forms one-quarter of the whole length, incluchng the caudal 

 fin, I think it is better to assign a new specific name to the present 

 more slender and smaller-headed fish, which occurs in great abun- 

 dance in the River Yarra. It is readily caught with a line, and 

 forms an excellent fish for the table. 



There is a second species of Gadopsis proportionately shorter, 

 deeper, and with a much more convex dorsal outline, abounchng in 

 the Bunyip River in Gippsland, to which I have given the name 

 Gadopsis gibbosus (McCoy) ; the difference of outline and propor- 

 tion easily distinguishing it from the present lietter known fish ; 

 it agrees with Richardson's species in having the head one-fourth 

 of the total length including the caudal, and in the profile rising 

 fi'om the snout to the highest part of the back at base of dorsal 

 with a regular gentle convexity, contrasting with the present 

 species, in which the back scarcely rises from a little behind the 

 eye. G. gibbosus has, however, 12 spines in the dorsal, and G. mar- 

 moratus is said to have only 10. 



Explanation op FionRES. 



Plate 27. — Fig. 2, rather small specimen, natural size, of the light-colored variety, with the 

 few large distant dark marblings not extending on the belly. Fig. 2a, one of the scales, magnified 

 twelve diameters, showing the nearly simple posterior margin. Fig, 3, another scale, showing 

 the occasional irregular undulation or notching of the posterior margin. Fig. 26, leethof upper 

 and lower jaws, palate-hones, and vomer. 



Frederick McCoy. 



Dec. III. [ 41 ] F 



