BY W. MACLEAY, F.L.S. 337 



71. Priacanthus benmebari, Temm. & Schleg. 



Gimtli. Cat. I., p. 218. 



D. 10/13. A. 3/14. L. lat. 75-80. 



The height of the body is three times and a-half, and the 

 length of head three times and two-thirds in the total length, the 

 diameter of the eye is two and three-quarters in the latter. 

 Posterior opening of the nostril elliptical, about twice and a-half 

 as long as broad. Angle of preooperculum slightly obtuse, with a 

 flat, rather elongate serrated spine , operculum with two very 

 small spines ; sub and inter-operculum with excessively fine 

 denticulations. Caudal fin truncated, dorsal and anal spines very 

 slender, neither rough nor striated ; the last of the dorsal hardly 

 longer than the eighth and ninth, and once and a-half as long as 

 the second ; the ventral fins reach to, but are shorter than the 

 anal. Eed : dorsal, anal, and ventral fins paler, with round 

 yellow spots. 



Sydney (Gunth. Ann. Nat. Hist., 1867, Vol. XX., p. 57). 



Group Apogonma. 



Genus Ambassis, Cuv. «& Val. 



Six branchiostegals. Teeth villiform, without conspicuously 

 larger canines ; teeth on the palatine bones. Two dorsals, the 

 first with seven, the anal fin with three spines, a procumbent 

 spine in front of the dorsal. Operculum without a prominent 

 spine ; the lower limb of the prseoperculum with a double 

 denticulated edge. Lateral line sometimes interrupted. Scales 

 large, deciduous. 



Small fishes living in the fresh and brackish waters of the 

 Indian and Australian regions. 



72. Ambassis Commersonii, Cuv. & Val. 



Gunth. Cat. I., p. 223. Bleek. Atl. Ichth. Perc, tab 74, fig. 1. 



D. 7. 1/9-10. A. 3/9. L. lat. 30-33. Vert. 9/15. 



