264 DESCRIPTIONS OF AUSTRALIAN FISHES, 



waters, and one is from More ton Bay, Queensland. The number 

 of spines and rays in their dorsal fins varies as follows : — 

 D. vii.-ix., 3-4/27-31; A. 2-3/23-26. The proportional measure- 

 ments of three local examples are given in the following table. 



Length 1120 mm. 1020 mm. 356 mm. 



Head (measured obliquely from symphy- 

 sis of upper jaw to end of opercular 



bone) into the length. 4*1 4*2 4 



Depth at last dorsal spine, into the length 5*7 5'1 67 

 Snout, from median symphysis to ante- 

 rior margin of eye, into the head 23 — 2*5 



Eye into head 8-4 S'S 6 



Eye into snout 3'6 — 2*3 



Interorbital width into head... . 2*3 — 2*8 



Interocular width into head 1'9 — 2*2 



Pectoral fin into head 1*2 1*1 1*3 



Ventral fin into head 25 2-5 2-6 



Highest dorsal ray into head 11 1'6 2 



Highest anal ray into head 2*1 1*9 2*6 



Depth of caudal peduncle into head 4*7 4*2 4*5 



Colour. — In large specimens, the back and sides are deep 

 brown, this colour being sharply defined below by a narrow 

 silvery band; the junction of the two forms a straight line from 

 the tip of the lower jaw to the middle of the caudal peduncle. 

 Below the silver band, is another brown one, which sharply 

 defines an oblong patch of orange colour on the abdomen between 

 the ventral and anal fins. In young examples, there is a light 

 band on the upper part of the sides also, which causes the brown 

 below it to form a median stripe as is shown in Day's figure 

 quoted above. 



There is some doubt as to whether the Sergeant Fish, R. 

 canadum Linnseus, is specifically identical with the Australian 

 Black Kingfish, though a comparison of my specimens with 

 Jordan and Evermann's figure* of the former reveals scarcely 

 any important differences between them. My Madras specimen 

 and another from Ne\^ South Wales of about the same size, 

 appear to be exactly alike in all their characters, and Day's 



* Jordan & Evermann, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 47, iv. 1900, Pl.cxlviii., 

 tig.401. 



