382 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOaUE OF AUSTRALIAN FISHES, 



fin emarginate. A yellowisli band broadly edged with, blackish 

 above and below, from above the pectoral fin to the root of the 

 caudal ; two indistinct blackish lines above the lateral line. 



Torres Straits, Port Essington, Poit Darwin. 



177. SCOLOPSIS PERSONATFS, Block. 



Gunth. Cat. Fishes I., p. 360.— Bleek. Atl. Ichth. Perc, pi. 63, f . 4. 

 D. 10/9. A. 3/7. L. lat. 50. 



The height of the body is three times and three-fourths in the 

 total length, the length of the head four times ; the diameter of 

 the eye is three times and a-third in the head. The preeorbital 

 is half as wide as the eye, and denticulated beneath the spine ; 

 the snout is scarcely longer than the diameter of the eye. Prae- 

 operculum with the angle rounded, and the posterior limb slightly 

 emarginated and strongly denticulated. The third anal spine 

 longest. Tail deeply forked with the lobes pointed ; the first ray 

 of the ventral fin produced into a short filament. Snout above 

 violet, with a bluish band between the eyes, a broad yellow band 

 from the eye to the tail, the soft dorsal with a violet margin 

 behind. 



Port Darwin. 



Genus Dentex, Cuv. 



Form oblong, a little elevated ; eye moderate. Mouth more 

 or less horizontal. One dorsal with from ten to thirteen spines, 

 anal with three. Caudal fin forked. Canine teeth. Praeorbital 

 entire, broad, distance between the eye and the cleft of the mouth 

 great. Preeoperculum entire, with more than three series of 

 scales ; operculum without prominent spine. Six branchiostegals. 

 Scales moderate, ctenoid. Pseudobranchise. Swim-bladder with 

 a notch posteriorly. Pyloric appendages in small number. 



Found in all Seas, 



