54 



the Mediterranean and adjoining districts of the Atlantic, 

 one to the Canaries, one to the sea of Japan, and two to 

 the seas of Australia. The chief peculiarities of the spe- 

 cies now first named are indicated in the specific character 

 given above. It agrees with M. stromii of E,heinhardt, and 

 the M.calorrhynchus of the Mediterranean and Madeira, in 

 the scales being armed on the exposed part of their disk 

 by slender subulate or setaceous spines, not disposed in any 

 definite order. M. fabricii (Sundevall), M. sclerorhynchus 

 (Valenciennes), and M. australis (Richai'dson, Zool. iii. p. 

 151, pi. 8, & 1) have the scales armed with spines ranged 

 in rows and incumbent on each other, forming toothed 

 ridges. The trachyrhynchus of the Mediterranean, and 

 japonicus (Temni. et Schleg; Krusenstern, t. 60, f. 8, 9), 

 differ from the others, in having tapering acute snouts. 



Our specimen of M. detiticukitus was thrown up on the 

 beach of South Australia, and has lost the end of its tail. 

 It was dried, and the soft parts about the snout have shri- 

 velled away, so that the true form of that part is still 

 unknown. The mouth appears to be more nearly terminal 

 than in the other species, and is certainly much more so 

 than in M. amiralis. The eye also is larger, and the flat 

 cheek and sloping disk of the preoperculum do not taper to 

 a point as in that species. There is a thin temporal ridge ; 

 the first dorsal is tall, the second one low, and commen- 

 cing a good way behind the anus. The first ventral ray ter- 

 minates in a slender filament, and the upper jaw is armed 

 by longer and more widely set teeth than that of aus- 

 tralis. A scale from the lateral line is shown in pi. 32, fig. 

 3, and one from another place on the side in fig. 4. 



Hab. Coasts of South Australia. 



NoTACANTHUS SEXSPiNis. RichardsoH. 



Ch. Spec. N. capite conico, rostra obtnso ; apicibus den- 

 iium lanceolatis ; pinnis pectoris ad aperturam bran- 

 chiarum approximatis. 



Radii : — D. 6|1 ; A. ]4|— ? P. 13 vel 14 ; V. 2'{J, cum 

 pari suo coiijuyatd. 



Plate XXXII., figs. 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, nat. size ; 6, 10, 11, magn. 



The specimen from which our figure was made, was 

 thrown ashore in King George's Sound, and has lost part 

 of its tail. It was prepared simply by drying, and on soak- 

 ing it well in water it resumed its former dimensions, in 

 which state it was drawn by the artist. In general form it 

 resembles A^. nasus,* but the snout, though blunt at the 

 point, is more exactly conical, and the profile, instead of 

 being gibbous just behind the eye, has a gentle straight 

 declivity which unites imperceptibly with the dorsal line. 

 The mouth is farther back than in nasus, the front part of 

 the cleft being under the nostrils and the posterior corner 

 opposite to the middle of the eye. The maxillary forks at 

 the lower end, its upper prong being an acute subulate 



Not. nasus ; fronte yibho ; dentibits subulatis parum compressis ; 

 pinnis pectoris ub aperturd branchiarum remolis. 



Radii ;— D. 11—; A. C. 13 136 ; P. 16 ; V. 3l8. 



spine, and the lower one a thin linear slip of bone which 

 curves slightly round the corner of the mouth, and is con- 

 cealed in the thickness of the lip. In N. nasus, the upper 

 lip forms an obtuse pendulous lobe at the corner of the 

 mouth, and the maxillary has also a spinous point, which is 

 represented in pi. 55, fig. 2 of the new French edition of the 

 ' Regne Animal,' but omitted by Bloch. Judging from the 

 French figure, the naked parts about the mouth seem to be 

 more extensive in nasus. In se.vspiiiis the scaly integu- 

 ment comes close to the upper teeth, but the lower lip is 

 naked : the rest of the head is densely scaly, so that the 

 forms of the bones cannot be made out. 



The upper teeth (fig. 10) are compressed, with lanceolate, 

 acute tips, which point obliquely backwards. The under 

 ones (fig. 11) are closely set, and have hair-like erect stems 

 with acute slightly incurved tips. The palatine and vo- 

 merine teeth ai'e smaller and more subulate than those of 

 the lower jaw, and are ranged in a single series, forming 

 an arc within those of the upper jaw. There are about 

 twenty or twenty-one on each side of the upper jaw, and 

 twenty-four on each limb of the lower one. The scales are 

 small, oval, and impressed by fine furrows, which radiate 

 from an eccentric point. The lateral line is nearly straight 

 and runs above the middle of the height. 



The first dorsal spine stands opposite to the posterior 

 third of the ventrals, as in nasus, and the third one is op- 

 posite to the first anal spine. A small, forked, jointed ray 

 stands in the axilla of the last dorsal spine. Both the ven- 

 tral spines and the last two dorsal ones are obsoletely 

 jointed, though they are stiff and pungent. The ventrals 

 are completely united to each other, so as to form but one 

 fin, as represented by fig. 5. The anal commences with 

 fourteen acute, pungent spines, but joints are distinctly 

 perceptible in three or four of the ]50sterior ones. The tail 

 being mutilated, we cannot state the number of the soft 

 anal rays, but the form of the portion of fin which remains 

 is much like that of nasus. The series of glandular points 

 represented as running along the base of the anal, in the fi- 

 gure of nasus, published in the ' Regne Animal,' were not 

 apparent in the specimen of sexspiiiis. Our fish, when en- 

 tire, must have been upwards of thirteen inches long. 



Hab. King George's Sound, Australia. 



Uranoscopus maculatus. Forster. 



Radii:— D. 18 vel 19; A. 17 vel 18; C. 



V. 1|5. 



P. 1( 



Uranoscopus maculosus, Solander, Pise. AusU. MSS., p. 21, An. 

 1770. Ur. maculatus, J. R. Forster, apud Schn. p. 49, An. 1801. Icon, 

 G. Forster, 176, 177, Bib. Banks. ; Richardson, An. and Mag. of Nat. 

 Hist. ix. p. 207, An. 1842 ; Forster, Descript. Anim. cura Lioht. p. 118, 

 1844. I7r. monopteri/gius, Schn. Ur. cirrhosus, C. et V. iii. p. 314, 

 An. 1829. Ur. Forsteri, Id. iii. p. 318. Ur. Kouripouia, Less. Voy. par 

 M. Duperry, pi. 18, An. 1830. 



Plate XXXIII., figs. 1—3, natural size. 



Solander detected and described this fish, but his notes 

 remaining in manuscript, the species was first made known 

 by Schneider from the papers of Forster. As there are 

 several Uranoscopcs with single dorsals, Cuvier hasjustly 



