59 



der limb, which is very long and narrow, is obscurely marked 

 by a series of pores. The suboperculum shows a smooth, 

 shining, slightly convex linear disk, seven or eight times 

 less in height than the operculum. The eye is large, near 

 the profile, half the diameter of the orbit from the orifice 

 of the mouth, and a diameter and a half from the edge of 

 the gill-cover. The mouth is small and terminal ; the in- 

 termaxillary thickish, convex, and without protractility. 

 The maxillary is stout and semi-oval, its upper end fits in- 

 to a notch in the intermaxillary, its lower and wider end 

 plays on the limb of the lower jaw, and only a small part 

 of its shoulder enters into the composition of the orifice of 

 the mouth. There is a slight fold of skin on the edge of 

 the lower jaw, but on the upper jaw the integuments 

 adhere closely to the bones. The four gill-rays are strap- 

 shaped, very thin and flat. There are no scales on the 

 head, which is flatfish above and gi-adually narrows from the 

 nape to the snout. On the occiput the sides of the head 

 are much rounded off laterally, but the upper border of the 

 orbit is prominent and rounded. 



The scales are of moderate size, there being eighty-seven 

 on the lateral line, and about twenty-three or twenty-four 

 rows in the height. They are suborbicular, of a delicate 

 texture, and are divided at the base into two or three lobes 

 by shallow obtuse notches, and have none of the usual fur- 

 rows. The exposed disk is marked by fi-om twenty to 

 forty slightly divergent grooves, producing a corresponding 

 number of rounded ridges, which terminate on the edge in 

 acute points. 



A long, pointed scale lies above, and another below the 

 pectoral, which is small and placed low down. The dorsal 

 fin commences exactly midway between the tip of the 

 snout and end of the scales on the base of the caudal fin ; 

 its three anterior rays are short, graduated, and closely in- 

 cumbent, without visible joints ; and the margin of the fin 

 is crescentic with acute points, the anterior point being 

 much higher than the posterior one. A scaly fillet em- 

 braces the base of the fin like a sheath, and nearlj^ covers 

 the rays, when they are recumbent. The ventrals are at- 

 tached opposite to the middle of the dorsal. A long acute 

 scale exists above the fin, and a broader and shorter one 

 between it and its fellow. The anal is shaped like the dor- 

 sal, but is smaller, and it has a similar scaly sheath which 

 nearly conceals the rays when they are laid flatly back. 

 The caudal fin is very deeply forked, with acute lobes, of 

 which the upper one is rather the longest. Two scaly fil- 

 lets separate the four central rays from the lobes. 



Forster describes the colour as bluish on the back and 

 silvery on the body, the head also shining and silvery, with 

 an ultramarine tint round the eyes and on the fore part of 

 the gill-cover. 



The specimen from which our figure is taken was pro- 

 cured in a brackish lagoon near Point Smith, Port Essing- 

 ton, in November, 1844. The one described in the 

 ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History' was speared 

 near the same point, but the natives state that it generally 

 inhabits deep water, and rarely approaches the shore. 

 Length 19 inches. 



Hab. Noi-th and west coasts of Australia, Torres Straits, 

 Island of Tanna. 



Elops machnata. Forskal, No. 100. 



Elops machnata, Riippell. Neue Wirlb. 80—84 ; Richardson, Report 

 on the Ichth. of the seas of China and Japan made to the Brit. Assoc, 

 vol. xiv. p. 310. An. 1845. Jinagoiv, Rnssell, 179. 



Radii:— B. .32; D. 24; A. 17; C. 19|; P. 17; V. 14. 

 Plate XXXVI., fig. 3, natural size ; 4, 5, magnified. 



This fish has already been well represented by Russell, 

 and the specimen from which our figure is taken being a 

 Chinese one, has no direct claim for admission into a work 

 devoted to the publication of Sir James Ross's collection, 

 but when the plate was executed some months ago, I was 

 desirous, by directly contrasting the Elops with Forster's 

 Muffil salmo)ieus, of placing beyond doubt Cuvier's mis- 

 take, in considering the two fish to be one species, not be- 

 ing then aware that this task had previously been per- 

 formed by Riippell in his ' Neue Wirlbethiere,' as has been 

 stated above. 



The figure is drawn from a dried specimen, which has 

 lost most of its original tints of colour. The suborbitar 

 chain including the preorbitar is narrow and linear beneath 

 the eyes, and its upper edge is raised in form of a smooth 

 even ridge, which becomes more distinctly tubular, and un- 

 even on the posterior margin of the orbit. The cheek, 

 which is moderately large, is wholly behind the orbit, and 

 the disk of the preoperculum, which is thin, wide, and 

 smooth, has a parabolic outline. One third part of the 

 maxillary passes the orbit, and its whole fi-ont edge up to 

 the rounded tip, and the edges also of the intermaxillaries 

 and lower jaw, are rough with small granular teeth ; the 

 dental plates widening towards the symphyses, and the in- 

 terior row of teeth ' being there rather longer and more 

 acute, since less worn. The teeth on the vomer and palate 

 bones are disposed in considerably broader brush-like 

 plates with a more even flat surface. A smooth low ridge 

 running from the nostrils traverses the anterior frontal bone 

 and disappears on the upper border of the orbit. Another 

 (the lateral ridge) rising also at the nostrils, runs directly 

 backwards in the intra-orbital space, but sinks again to the 

 level of the skull op])osite the posterior part of the orbit. 

 The space between this ridge and its fellow is concave ; 

 outside of it the skull is convex and rises above it, so that 

 it must be wholly concealed in the recent fish. The tem- 

 poral ridge is smooth and slightly elevated, though con- 

 spicuous enough in the dried specimen. The occiput is 

 convex. 



The scales are tolerably large, but being much tiled only 

 a small rhomboidal portion of the disk is visible. Their 

 exterior edges are thin, delicate, and being easily tora, are 

 for the most part irregular. These edges are undulated, pro- 

 ducing when ill situ the semblance of fine teeth or streaks, 

 but when the scales are wet and placed in the microscope 

 the streaks disappear, hence they are not shown in the 

 drawing of the magnified scale, fig. 4. Russell indicates 

 them in his plate, but such fine lines not being suited for 

 lithography, they could not be introduced into our figure 

 without rendering it darker than it ought to be. There are 



