127 



dorsal and anal appeared very dark, the other fins yellow- 

 ish or orange. The body also looked dark, but on detach- 

 ing a scale from the back, the membranous pouch which 

 enclosed it, was found to be of a lively purplish-red. All 

 traces of coloured zones or spots, if any ever existed, had 

 disappeared. The skin and membranes generally were 

 very tough, and the fin-membranes thick and opaque. 



The intestinal canal is a wide tube, the stomach being 

 of a larger diamet«r than the rest, and having its internal 

 coat densely villous. The villous plaits are reticulated, 

 and become more and more delicate, until they disappear 

 altogether, leaving the fourth part of the tube next the 

 anus smooth. The first caudal vertebra has a narrowly 

 linear-lanceolate inferior process, with a broad thin shoul- 

 der or plate on each side where it joins the body of the 

 vertebra. Two holes for the passage of vessels exist in 

 this process : each of the succeeding inferior processes of 

 the spine have only one hole. 



Mr. Lempriere informs me that this wrasse and the fol- 

 lowing one form a coarse food, disagreeable to some 

 palates, but not unwholesome. Judging from the contents 

 of their stomachs their food consists chiefly of Crustacea. 



Length 18 inches. 



In a manuscript account of the fish of Albany, King 

 George's Sound, with drawings by Deputy Assistant-Com- 

 missary-General Patrick Neill, belonging to the British 

 Museum, I observed a Labroid which is named " brown 

 rock fish " by the sealers, and " pokong " by the natives, 

 which has much resemblance in form to L. tetricus. The 

 drawing is coloured dark blackish -green on the upper 

 parts and chestnut-brown below, with about nine obscure 

 dark bands crossing the back, and three or four on the 

 head. The pectorals and caudal are dark ; the ventrals, 

 anal and dorsal brownish. The drawing is not finished 

 minutely. 



Hab. Tasmania. 



Labrus fucicola, rel Tautoga fucicoi^\. Richardson. 



: fucicola, Richardson, Zoo!. Proceed., June 25, 

 p. 137. 



Radii:— B. 6; D. 9|11; A. 3|10; C. 14; P. 13; V. 1\o. 



PlateLIV., figs. 1,2. 



In this species the bones of the head are less uneven 

 than in L. tetricus, and the opercular scales are more irre- 

 gular, some small round ones being scattered among the 

 larger ones. The cheek, as far forward as the fore part of 

 the eye, and near to the angle of the mouth, is protected 

 by four rows of small scales, the uppermost of which runs 

 close to the narrow suborbitar chain, and the lower one is 

 more distant from the preopercular disk than in tetricus. 

 As the scales rise before the vertical limb of the preoper- 

 culum towards the temples they are restricted to three 

 rows. The scales covering the body are a little smaller 

 than in the species just named, and the lateral line, which 



makes the same almost vertical dip at the end of the dor- 

 sal, is traced on twenty-seven scales, in addition to which 

 there are four rows on the base of the caudal rays, exclu- 

 sive of the short scaly fillets between the rays. The divi- 

 sions of the mucous tube on the scales of the lateral line 

 (fig. 2) are less numerous and bush-like than in tetricus: 

 The teeth are comparatively stronger, and are disposed in 

 very slightly convex, not straight lines, which gives a 

 greater fullness to the upper jaw when viewed in front or 

 from above, and less of the rectilinear rhomboid form which 

 characterises the dental arrangement of tetricus and many 

 species of Julis. The canine tooth at the angle of the 

 mouth is slightly curved, and the interior rows of small 

 teeth are more evident than in tetricus. The caudal is 

 considerably rounded at the end, the anal is somewhat 

 arched, and the fore part of the soft dorsal is a little higher 

 than its posterior part. The dorsal and anal spines are 

 similar in form and proportions to those of tetricus. 



The only traces of the original markings remaining in 

 the specimens when received were some faint lines curving 

 over the cheek and nose, a dark bar crossing the pectoral 

 at a third of its length, and a black spot at the base of that 

 fin and on its first ray. 



This species possesses nine abdominal vertebrse and six- 

 teen caudal ones. The first of the latter differs from the 

 corresponding one of the preceding species in its inferior 

 process, having an acute shoulder instead of a rounded 

 one, in its limb being narrowly linear, not lanceolate, and 

 in its lower opening being elliptical and much larger than 

 the round one next the centrum of the vertebra. 



Length of two specimens procured at Port Arthur, 11 ^ 

 and 15 inches. 



A drawing of a wrasse, made at the port just named, by 

 a convict under Dr. Lhotsky's inspection, and closely re- 

 sembling this species, represents the general colour of the 

 upper parts as dark plum-purple, the belly fading to bufi', 

 with four pale spots on the back, one of them on the supra- 

 scapular, another close to the eighth Spinous ray of the 

 dorsal, and two others touching the base of the soft dorsal, 

 the distances between the three posterior ones being equal. 

 Our figure in Plate LIV., being executed from a dried 

 specimen, shows the lips less fully developed, especially 

 the preorbitar ones, than in the recent fish ; and the artist, 

 fancying that he could distinguish the pale spots under 

 the dorsal, has introduced them, but he has omitted the 

 bar on the pectoral which remains in the dried fish. 



The Labroid represented in No. 9 of D. A. C. G. Neill's 

 drawings, already quoted, is probably this species. It is 

 called by the sealers the " common rock fish," by the na- 

 tives " paril," and is said to be very common on rocky 

 shores and to take the hook readily. 



Hab. Coasts of Tasmania and South Australia. 



Another of Mr. Neill's drawings may also be noticed 

 here. It is numbered 37, and is named " black fish " by 

 the sealers, and " paril," " kuhoul " or " bimburn " by the 

 natives. It is considered by Mr. Neill to be a variety of 

 the " common paril " above mentioned, is stated by him to 

 be also an inhabitant of rocky shores, and to grow to some 

 size. It is most probably a distinct species of the genus 

 Labrus or Tautoga. Mr. Neill's figure is coloured dark 



