OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 386 



oysters about Sydney and destroys them. I am indebted for this 

 information to Mr. Joubert, who found several in oysters, the 

 animals of which had been more or less eaten. 



Cristioeps Macleati. 



Body rather elongate, its greatest height being contained three 

 times and one third in the total length without the caudal fin ; head 

 four times in the same ; forehead oblique and straight, the lower 

 jaw rather longer than the upper ; snout a little longer than the 

 eye, a fringed tentacle on the nostrils and another over the orbit ; 

 the first dorsal two-thirds of the height of the body, it is placed 

 over the posterior third of the eye ; second dorsal formed of 

 thirty-four rays or spines ; the caudal long and pointed ; the anal 

 with twenty-five rays ; the pectorals are of moderate length ; the 

 second dorsal is placed farther backwards on the tail than the 

 anal, but both are attached to it by a membrane. 



The fish is entirely of a reddish-brown, with the fins orange. 



The only specimen I have seen is 7 inches long, and in the 

 collection of Mr. Wm. Macleay, who communicated it to me under 

 the name of Australis, but that species is described by Cuvier 

 and Valenciennes as having transverse bands, and as inhabiting 

 Tasmania, and I believe it is the one T described under the name 

 01 Howittii ; Proceed. Zool. Soc. Victoria, Vol. II., p. 48. 



N.B. — Dr. Gunther mentions a fish from Port Jackson that he 

 considers as belonging to the European Cristicejos argentatus, but 

 at the same time finding constant diflerences between the two, 

 he says that "those who consider this variety as a separate species 

 may call it Oristiceps antinectis ;" or in other words this means 

 that the Australian GHsticeps is argentatus but at the same time 

 it is not ; so that though it is argentatus it will have to be called 

 antineciis ; showing once more into what confusion zoologists 

 fall when they want to establish local varieties instead of 

 admitting all such constant varieties as distinct species, particularly 

 when they are found in difierent regions. It is evident that the 

 number of Australian species of this genus is very large, and 

 their study is rendered still more difiicult by the fact that the 

 old authors considered them all as one ; \ cannot on description 



