125 



The stomach is an oval sac, with the pyloric orifice of 

 the intestine situated one-third of its height from the fun- 

 dus. The gut is short, folding onl}' once in its way to the 

 anus, and there are no coeca. The supra-occipital has a 

 thin crest hehind, extending as far back as the corners of 

 the par-occipitals, which project so as to produce an angu- 

 lar notch in the occiput. The top of the skull is smooth 

 and flatly rounded. The large oval orbits are sepai-ated 

 by a narrow bridge, which is concave, forming a furrow ; 

 and the margin of the orbit beneath is completed by the 

 narrow, tubular, suborbitar chain. The nearly quadrantal 

 preorbitar is traversed by several radiating flat elevations, 

 which are hollow beneath. The preoperculum is curved 

 to rather less than a right angle : its lower limb is some- 

 what longer than the upper one, and its edge is perfectly 

 smooth. There are ten abdominal vertebrae and thirty- 

 seven caudal ones : the pleurapophysial processes of the 

 former are mere angles. The inferior processes in the 

 caudal vertebrae are slender and subulate, like the neural 

 spines, of all the column. 



Length from 6 to 8 or 9 inches. 



Hab. Coasts of New Zealand. Wangaroa Bay. Cook's 

 Strait. Queen Charlotte Sound. 



Chironectes caudimaculatus. Riippell. 



Chirniiectes caudimaculatm, Ruppell, Neue VVirlb. p. 141, Tab. 33, 

 fig. 2. 



Radii :— D. 1-1-1-13 ; A. 7 ; C. 9 ; P. 9 ; V. 5. 



Plate LX., figs. 8, 9. 



Notwithstanding some slight differences in form, as 

 shown by the drawings, I have ventured to refer this fish 

 to the candimaculaius of Ruppell, on account of the close 

 accordance of his description, and the general resemblance 

 of his figure. The differences to which I allude are, the 

 different positions of the first dorsal ray, which in our 

 specimen is very near the upper lip, and decidedly before 

 the eye, while in the Neue IVirlebel/iiere it is represented as 

 over the orbit, and close to the base of the second ray. If 

 this be not an error in the delineation of the Arabian fish, 

 it may be considered as an indication of a specific distinc- 

 tion. The membranous filament was broken in the speci- 

 men Ruppell has figured, so that the form of that part in 

 our figure is to be considered as the correct one. A 

 slighter difference of form is the greater height of the 

 second and third dorsal rays in Riippell's fish, but this I 

 attribute to these parts being shrivelled in our example, 

 which is a dried one. The anal and dorsal are connected 

 by membrane close to the base of the caudal in the Aus- 

 tralian fish, while there is a portion of the trunk of the tail 

 free in the Arabian one ; and the spots are represented as 

 mere points, instead of the meandering and anastomosing 



lines well exhibited in onr figure. As there is great vari- 

 ety in the markings of individuals of the same species in 

 this genus, I have not separated the Australian fish from 

 caudimaculatus, on the latter account ; and some of tlie 

 other differences may be fairly attributed to the different 

 condition of the individuals when sketched, as the laxity 

 of the integuments in a fresh specimen admits of the form 

 being varied, by their stretching in different directions. 

 The distribution of the dark lines and other markings is 

 different from that which chai-acterises C. hispidus and 

 other Indian species described in the Histoire des Poissons. 

 C. furcipilis has two spots on the fins. 



in our example of caudimaculatm, the first free dorsal 

 ray is slender, flexible, smooth, unjointed, and tipped 

 with a thin bifid membrane. It springs from a small tu- 

 bercle situated above the nostrils, and rough like the ad- 

 joining integuments. The second and third rays are 

 covered with the prickly skin, which entirely conceals 

 them, and forms of them two obtuse ridges or humps, 

 rough like the adjoining parts of the back. The foremost 

 of these humps is a little free at the top ; the other is 

 bound down to the back its whole length. The forms of 

 the other fins will be easily understood from the figures. 

 The skin is rough to the touch over the whole fish, and 

 when examined closely appears to be equally studded with 

 very small hemispherical eminences, which, along the la- 

 teral line, the space between it and the dorsal, on the top 

 of the head, the snout, upper jaw, preoperculum, round the 

 orbits and on the rays of the fins, each support a minute, 

 rigid, bifid spine, very rarely a trifid one. Along the back, 

 these minute spinules look like short hairs to the naked 

 eye. Below the lateral line, only a very few spines can be 

 detected, but the little eminences are many of them sur- 

 mounted by a point of membrane. By dissection each 

 eminence is found to be based on a thin circular scale, 

 with an excentric umbo, from which a few wrinkles radiate; 

 but there are no fan-like furrows, and the lines of structure 

 cannot be made out with a simple lens of high power. 

 The margin of the scale is quite entire. The lateral line 

 runs, as described in the Neue JViilbetJdere, from the 

 symphysis of the upper jaw, over the eye and along the 

 back, in an undulating manner, to the middle of the dor- 

 sal, where it ends. Throughout its whole lenglli it emits 

 short vertical branches, which are most conspicuous on 

 the face and scapular region, and it is also furnished 

 with short filaments ; a few membranous barbels are scat- 

 tered over the sides, and one is appended to the chin or 

 external projection between the limbs of the mandible, 

 produced by the depression of the tongue. There is a 

 prominence at the symphysis of the mandible, which is 

 mentioned by Dr. Ruppell. The teeth on the jaws, vomer 

 and upper and under pharyngeals are in card-like patches, 

 the pharyngeals being best armed, and the vomer least so. 

 The chevron of the latter is saddle-shaped, the mesial hol- 

 low being smooth, and the side eminences furnished with 

 small patches of teeth. The eyed spots on the tail are 

 transparent in tlie dried fish. 



Length 4:^ inches. 



Hab. Coasts of Australia. Red Sea. 



