23 



will be best understood by a reference to the figure. There 

 are eleven simple rays in the pectoral. 



Length, 280 inches. 



Hab. North-west coast of Australia. 



Sebastes rERCOiDEs. Richardson. 

 Radii :— Br. 7-7 ; D. 12|12 vol 13 ; A.3|5; C. 1I|-: P. II 

 et viii. ; V. 1|5. 



Scorpcena perco'ides, Solander, MSS. Parkinson, Icon. ined. Bibl. 

 Banks, pi. Hi. Sebastes nuiculatus, Richai'dson, Zoological Transactions, 

 iii. p. 93. Sebastes perco'ides, Solander, Annals of Nat. Hist, for July, 

 1842, p. 384. 



Plate XV., figs. 1, 2, natural size. 



In the third volume of the Zoological Transactions, I 

 described this species at length as to form, referring it to 

 the Cape Sebastes maculatiis, which at that time 1 knew 

 only from the short notice of the species contained in the 

 Histoire des Poissons. A well-preserved specimen, brought 

 from New Zealand by Sir James Ross, and still retaining 

 much of its proper markings, enables me to identify the fish 

 with the Scorpcena percoides of Solander, and the publica- 

 tion of Dr. Andrew Smith's figure of Sebastes maculatiis, 

 in his ' Zoology of South Africa' (Plate 22, upper figure), 

 has shown that I was in error, in supposing that the Aus- 

 tralian and Cape Sebastes were the same. I have, there- 

 fore, the pleasure of giving a correct figure, under Solan- 

 der's original specific name. Some of the bands of dark 

 colour, especially one across the head, and another in the 

 shoidder, have faded in the spirits, and Solander's account 

 of the recent tints ought, therefore, to be referred to in the 

 ' Annals of Natural History,' as above quoted. 



Sebastes maculatiis has a much lower spinous dorsal, 

 and smaller veutrals, a smaller eye, and less acutely spinous 

 head, than S percoides. 



Length, 9j inches. 



Hab. New Zealand, Van Diemen's Land, and Port 

 Jackson. 



Platycephalus tasmanius. Richardson. 



Char. Spec. PL osse preorbitali unidentato ; orbitd l<evi ; 



spina preoperculi inferiori, longiori ; corpore, pinnisque 



pectoris, dorsi et caudm maculatis. 

 Radii :— B. 7 ; D. 1-6|— 14 ; A. 14 ; C. 13|, P. 12 et vi. ; 

 V. 1|5. 



Platycephalus tasmanius, Richardson, Zool. Trans., vol. iii. p. 97. 



Plate XVHI., figs. 1, 2, natural size. 



This fish is fully described in the Zoological Transac- 

 tions above quoted. I there noticed its near approach to 

 Platycephalus basscnsis, characterised in the Histoire des 

 Poissons, and figured by Quoy and Gaimard in the ' Zoology 

 of the Voyage of the Astrolabe' (Plate 10, fig. 3). It agrees 

 with that species in the relative size of the preopercular 

 spines, but differs in having only one small spinous point 

 on the preorbitar, instead of two ; and no tooth whatever on 

 the margin of the orbit. In the skeleton of tasmanius, a 

 slight rib is vi.sible in the preorbitar bone, but it does not 

 project beyond the edge. These minute differences of 

 structure, though not established by an examination of an 



authentic specimen of bassensis, but merely gathered from 

 the works referred to, being conjoined with considerable 

 discrepancy in the size and distribution of the spots of 

 colour, have induced me to keep the species separate. 

 With the exception of a slight variation in the numbers of 

 the rays, the characters are con.stant in a considerable num- 

 ber of examples of tasmanius. 



Size, from eight to eighteen inches in length. 



Had. Coasts of Van Diemen's Land. 



Trigla pleuracanthica. Richardson. 



Ch. spec. Tr. fossa dorsali et lined laterali validd armatis; 

 squamis corporis, bast Jlabellatis, latcribus concavis, 

 postice cordatis, apiculatis, carinatis ; orbitis antice 

 tridenlatis; facie parum concavd. 



Radii :— Br. 7 ; D. 9|— 14 ; A. 14 ; C. Oi ; P. 11 et iii. ; 

 V. l|o. 



Plate XVI., figs. 1, 2, natural size ; 3, 4, magnified. 



This gurnard belongs to the same group with Tr if/la 

 aspera, or the CaviUone of the Mediterranean ; and of the 

 three species of the Indian Ocean, described in the His- 

 toire des Poissons, it approaches most closely to the Trigla 

 papilio (p. 80, pi. 73). It has the same kind of spinous 

 armature at the base of the dorsal fins and on the lateral 

 line, with much resemblance in the shape of the other scales, 

 and agrees with it in the numbers of the rays. It differs 

 fi-om this and the rest of the group, in the greater size of 

 the lateral spines, in the form of the air-bladder, and in 

 other particulars, which are mentioned in the following 

 description. 



The face is not so even as that of papilio, but is slightly 

 concave, and has a greater slope. The snout is rounded, 

 with a scarcely perceptible notch at the mesial line, antl 

 no other points or teeth than the roughness of the bone, 

 which, on the head generally, is produced by fine, short, 

 parallel ridges. The membranous space over the inter- 

 maxillary pedicles is very small. There are three teeth on 

 the upper anterior part of the orbit ; the rest of the super- 

 ciliary ridge is rough, and just behind the eye the rough 

 points are more crowded and bristling. The interorbital 

 space is deeply concave, and its bottom, less rough than 

 the other parts of the skull, is marked by rows of fine 

 round grains. The vault of each orbit is longitudinally 

 ridged. There is a deep crevice behind each eye, con- 

 nected by a cross fuiTow on the top of the head. The small 

 ridges are much crowded on the occiput and snout, so 

 that no definite arrangement can be traced ; but on the 

 cheek and gill-cover, the ridges are parallel and hori- 

 zontal, with various irregular, smooth, nacry lines under 

 the eye, and elsewhere. The intcroperculum has a 

 squarish projecting process ; the ascending limb of the 

 preoperculum is slightly concave on the edge ; the corner 

 is angular, and projects slightly, and the under limb is 

 convex. There are three or four minute teeth on the cor- 

 ner of the bone, but nothing nearly so conspicuous as the 

 four preopercular teeth, represented in the figure of Tr. 

 papilio {Hist, des Poiss., pi. 73), and the whole form of the 

 preoperculum and suboperculum differs in the two species. 

 The notch between the angular points of the operculum is 



