DIMENSIONS. 



Length from tip of snout to end of caudal fin 3"25 inches. 



„ „ anus 1-30 „ 



„ „ gill-opening 0-70 „ 



Height of body 0-60 „ 



Thickness of ditto 045 „ 



Length of pectoral fin 0-55 „ 



„ caudal fin 070 „ 



Hab. North-west coast of Australia. 



Eleoteis gobioides. Cuv. et Valenc. 



Eleotris gobioides. Hist, des Poiss. 12, p. 247. 



Radii:— B. 6; D. 6| — 1|11; A. l\\0; C. 22 ; P. 20; 

 V. 1|5.* 



Plate II., figs. 5, 6, natural size. 



Many specimens of this fish were procured by the 

 expedition in the salt water of the Bay of Islands, and in 

 a fresh water lake a short way in the interior. They vary 

 considerably in the distinctness of the markings, and the 

 pale vertical line on base of the pectoral fin is in some 

 scarcely to be perceived. The dark blotches on each side 

 of the line always exist. 



The operculum and suboperculum are scaly ; the ante- 

 rior corner only of the latter bone, and the interoperculum, 

 being naked. The cheek appears to be naked, but scales 

 may be detected by scraping off the smooth integument. 

 On the top of the head the scales come forward to oppo- 

 site the posterior third of the orbits, and are scarcely 

 sensibly less than those of the body ; their bounding 

 line sweeps round to behind the eye, and there is a 

 cluster of small scales on the temple at the upper end of 

 the preoperculum. Two open pores exist on the disk 

 of this bone, and there are many fine mucigenous lines 

 on the head, viz., one running longitudinally along the 

 interior border of each nasal region, another beneath the 

 eye, a double one along the temporal fuirow, one branching 

 on the cheek, one tracing the lower edge of the interoper- 

 culum, and continuing up the furrow which marks the 

 edge of the preoperculum to the temple, and, lastly, one 

 crossing the operculum obliquely. 



dimensions. 



Length from upper lip to tip of caudal fin 5'80 inches. 



„ „ anus 2-90 „ 



„ „ gill-opening 1-65 „ 



Length of caudal 1-05 „ 



Height of body MO „ 



Thickness of body 0!W „ 



„ head at gill plates 1-00 „ 



The largest example measures above seven inches in 

 length. 



Hab. Bay of Islands, and adjoining fresh-water lakes 

 of New Zealand. 



* The last two rays of the dorsal and anal are separate at the base 

 and aie counted here separately, not as branches of one ray, as in the 

 Hist, des Poiss. 



Eleotris mogurnda. Richardson. 



Ch. Spec. El. rostro, genlsque sqtiamosis ; fasciis tribus 

 obliquis nigrescentibus in operculis, maculis obscuris in 

 medio latere; pinnis dorsi, ani et caud<B maculosis. 



Radii:— D. 8|-1|14; A. 1|14; C. 32; P. 16; V. 1|5. 



Plate II., figs. 1 and 2, natural size. 



This species, like the preceding, has much the aspect 

 of the common obscure-coloured gobies of the European 

 seas, and it differs from the Eleotrides generally, in having 

 a greater number of dorsal and anal rays. Its specific 

 name is its native appellation at Port Essington. 



The body is highest at the commencement of the first 

 dorsal, and it diminishes so gradually posteriorly, that the 

 tail is only a third less high. In profile the nape is round, 

 and the slope from thence is pretty steep, in a straight or 

 slightly hollow line to the nostrils, where the snout, as is 

 usual in the genus, bulges a little. The thickness of the 

 body is a third less than the height, and the compression 

 increases in the tail until the thickness is only a third of 

 the height. The sides are flattish, the belly is obtuse, the 

 back rather less so. The cheeks and gill-cover are convex, 

 and the top of the head is Hat, or somewhat hollow in 

 the middle. The temporal groove is deeply impressed, and 

 is lined with scales, without the fine line of pores which 

 traverses it in many species. Neither are the muciferous 

 lines to be traced on the cheek. 



The cheeks and gill-covers are densely scaly, and on 

 the top of the head the scales are equal in size to those of 

 the body. They run forward nearly to the edge of the 

 snout, terminating in an obtuse projection on each side of 

 a small scaleless space, covering the intermaxillary pedicles. 

 The narrow nasal regions, the small preobitar, the upper 

 and under lips, the lower border of the interoperculum, 

 the lower jaw, and the gill-membrane, are also scaleless. 

 The convex upper border of the orbit is clothed by a triple 

 series of densely tiled scales, much smaller than those on 

 the cheek, or top of the head. 



The eye is distant one diameter of the orbit from the 

 tip of the snout, and two-and-a-half from the gill-opening. 

 The head constitutes a third of the length of the fish, 

 excluding the caudal fin. The mouth is moderately large, 

 and the lowerjaw is longer than the upper one. The teeth 

 are in moderately broad villiform bands, with an outer 

 row above and below, a little stouter. The tongue and 

 palate are studded by minute glandular-looking papillae. 

 The gill-membranes join the isthmus far forward, beneath 

 the fore part of the orbit, but the opening is restricted by 

 a delicate interior fold of membrane, beneath the upper 

 limb of the preoperculum. There are three pores on the 

 disk of the preoperculum. The anus is posterior to the 

 middle of the fish, caudal excluded. The anal papilla is 

 small and simple. The general colour of the specimens, 

 after long maceration in spirits, is honey-yellow, or pale 

 brown, unspotted on the under surface of the head and 

 belly, but deepening into dark umber on the back. A 

 crowded series of blackish brown blotches runs along the 

 middle of the sides, and there are three parallel oblique 

 dark streaks on the side of the head. The upper streak 



