BY E. R. WAITE. 223 



from the centre of each tubercle. The lateral row of scutes is not 

 continued to the extremity of the tail, as such, but passes upward 

 and merges into the upper row at the end of the dorsal fin. 

 Length 16 inches. 



I have not noticed any important structural differences in the 

 sexes, beyond the fact that the female has a relatively longer body 

 than the male, and has the lower surface of the tail spiny as in 

 other parts. 



Some little time ago Mr. Whitelegge obtained a fresh male at 

 Maroubra, with six or seven ova adhering ; they were unfortu- 

 nately lost before I had an opportunity of seeing them, but the 

 mode of attachment and the area occupied were very apparent. 

 Counting along the inferior surface the non-spiny portion extends 

 from the vent to the fifteenth scute. Along the sides the lateral 

 row forms the upper boundary as far as the eleventh scute, thence 

 to the fifteenth scute the boundary is the series which there 

 becomes the lateral row of the tail. The area thus i-estricted is 

 covered with a smooth skin. During the breeding season it 

 becomes flaccid and thrown into ridges, forming shallow pits. 

 Into each pit an ovum is placed and no doubt glued into position 

 with some viscid secretion. It occurred to me that this skin 

 might be but the remnants of an egg-case, but as all the male 

 specimens in the Museum, both dry and in spirits, possess it, and 

 as it is scarcely likely that they were all taken during the breeding 

 season, I am led to consider it as part of the animal. The fact of 

 the ova-bearing male above referred to having been taken on 

 March 4th would appear to indicate autumn as the spawning 

 season. 



Giinther described this species from Tasmania ; Kliinzinger 

 records it from Port Philip, Victoria ; and we have it from 

 WoUongong, thence from various places to Port Jackson, where 

 several examples have been obtained at odd times. 



