750 ox SOME AUSTRALIAN ELEOTRIN.E, 



Olive-green or brown above, the sides paler, gray below: head 

 purple above, shading into violet beneath; sides with a series of 

 faint dusky blotches, only that in front of and partly on the base 

 of the caudal fin at all conspicuous; first dorsal tin violet with 

 three longitudinal series of purplish or chestnut spots; the second 

 pale grayish-green with four series of similar but smaller spots; 

 caudal, anal, and ventral fins gray, sometimes with the extremities 

 of the rays violet ; pectorals grayish-green, the upper half the 

 darker. 



This is the only Eleotrid which has as 3^et come under my notice 

 from Victoria, nor so far as I know have any of my Melbourne 

 co-workers been more fortunate, though two other species have 

 Ijeen recorded from the Yarra by European scientists; namely, 

 cyprinoides hy Klunzinger and melbo^im eiisis hy Sauvage.* 



This Gudgeon is very abundant in the Yarra, and there cannot 

 be any doubt as to the identity of my species with that of Count 

 Castelnau; there are, however, several points of difference which 

 need explanation, as follows : — 



(1) In Castelnau's description the intex'orbital region is said to 

 he " one- third " of the length of the head, while I find it to be 

 only half that width;! this may be explained in a similar manner 

 to that suggested as the cause of difference between Steindachner's 

 description of Eleotris richanlsonii and mine of Mulyoa co.vii 

 (see p. 744). 



(2) The apparently larger size of the eye in my examples is 

 easily capable of explanation by the fact that Castelnau's measure- 

 ment of the length of the head is taken from the extremity of the 

 })i'ojecting mandible, mine from that of the snout. 



* It is one of the most remarkable problems connected with Australian 

 fish literature how the continental naturalists, receiving small collections 

 from such well worked localities as Port Jackson and Hobsou's Bay, 

 invariably succeed in obtaining fishes, which we, despite our local know- 

 ledge, and despite that having been once recorded they are more carefully 

 sought for, are unable to find. 



t Castelnau's words — " eyes considerably apart, the distance from one 

 or other being nearly equal to the third of the length of the head "—are 

 rather ambiguous, but there can be little doubt as to what his meaning is. 



