124 A NEW FAMILY OF AUSTRALIAN FISHES, 



is that from which Dr. Giinther received his Atherina signata, 

 which is said to be identical with Kner's fish. 



Rhombatractus. 



Aristeus (not DuA-ernoy) Castelnau, Proc. Linn. Soc. IST.S. Wales, 

 iii. 1878, p. 141. 



RJiombairactns, Gill, American Naturalist, 1894, p. 709. 



Body rhombofusiform or oblong, strongly compressed, with the 

 dorso-rostral profile more or less emarginate, and the ventral profile 

 convex; head small, the snout broad and depressed; mouth 

 moderate, anterior, with oblique cleft, the lips thin; jaws equal or 

 the lower a little the longer; premaxillaries not protractile, forming 

 the entire dentigerous margin of the upper jaw, broad and pro- 

 jecting horizontally in front, narrow and oblique behind; maxil- 

 laries narrow, extending a little beyond the premaxillaries, 

 entirely concealed beneath the preorbital except at the extreme 

 tip. All the bones of the head entire, the preopercle with a 

 double ridge. Gill-membranes separate, entirely free from the 

 isthmus; gill-openings wide; five branchiostegals; pseudobranchijB 

 present; gill-rakers widely separated, moderate, stiff, and serrulate. 

 Jaws with a band of short, stout, conical teeth, which are 

 more numerous in the lowei", the outer series being much enlarged 

 and recurved; vomer and palatine bones with narrow bands of 

 small, stout, conical teeth; tongue toothless.* Two separate 

 dorsal fins with v-vii, i 9-14 rays, the first not so long as the 

 second and composed of one strong and a variable number of 

 flexible, unarticulated, spinous rays, the second with a similar 

 spine and several branched rays: anal fin originating beneath the 

 base of the first dorsal and more developed than the second, with 

 i 17-21 rays : ventral fins close together, thoracic, inserted a short 



* The teeth on the vomer and some or all of those behind the anterior 

 series upon the horizontal portion of the premaxillaries are occasionally 

 wanting in adult specimens, and are probably more or less deciduous with 

 age. 



