128 



neutral tint, paler towards the belly, and nearly black on 

 the top of the head, sides and fins. It is thickly and irre- 

 gularly speckled down to the middle of the height of the 

 body and head with rust-coloured dots, which are largest 

 on the back, and much smaller on the sides, there being 

 many on each scale. There are no spots on the fins. The 

 spotting of this fish corresponds in some respects with the 

 L. fiecilopleura of New Zealand {Hht. des Poiss. xiii. 

 p. 95), and it is possible that the drawing may be designed 

 to represent that species, but the general tint appears to 

 be much darker. 



Hab. King George's Sound. 



Labrus laticlavids, vel Tautoga laticlavia. 

 Richardson. 



Labrus laticlavins, Richardson, Zool. Proceed., March 10, 1840. 

 Zool. Trans, iii. p. 139. 



Radii :— B. 5 ; D. 9| 11 ; A. 3| 10 ; C. I24 ; P. 12 ; V. 1 15. 



Plate LVI., figs. 3—6. 



This very handsome wrasse seldom exceeds a foot in 

 length, has a more elegant form than the three species 

 we have already described, and comes nearer to Tautoya 

 in having fewer scales on the cheek. Its general aspect is 

 that of a Julis. The head is neat and small, its length be- 

 ing contained four times and nearly one half in the total 

 length, caudal included. The membranous flap of the 

 gill-cover is produced so as to form a rounded lobe, which 

 extends nearly its own breadth beyond the supeiior at- 

 tachment of the operculum. In L. (etricus, fiicicola and 

 iiiscriphis, the operculum is joined to the shoulder by a 

 membranous production, which reduces the gill-opening to 

 a vertical slit, not a curved one as in the present species. 



The scales which cover the operculum and part of the 

 suboperculum are thin and large, and a vertical row of six 

 small scales descends from the temples, before the limb 

 of the preoperculum, not quite to its curve, the rest of 

 the cheek being naked. The integuments of the head 

 are less spongy and porous than in the Labri already 

 described, and the gill-membrane is narrow. There are 

 eleven teeth on each side of each jaw, with a tolerably 

 strong canine tooth at the angle of the mouth : the inner 

 row of small teeth is about as numerous as the outer one, 

 and in the dried specimen they are tolerably prominent, 

 especially in the upper jaw. There are about forty-five 

 teeth in the lower pharyngeal bone, and twenty in each of 

 the upper ones (figs. 5, 6). 



Tile scales of the body have equally thin membranous 

 edges with those of tetricus and fiwicola, but their fan-like 

 streaks are more strongly developed. The lateral line is 

 composed of twenty-six scales, exclusive of two without 

 tubular elevations on the base of the caudal, aud the short 



fillets of scales between the rays, and it curves as usual 

 opposite to the end of the dorsal to the depth of one entire 

 scale. Its tubular elevations have a compact arbuscular 

 form, springing first fi-om the central tube in a palmated 

 manner, and dividing into simple and forked tubes. Most 

 of the tubes are pierced by pores or lateral openings. The 

 spinous dorsal is even, and a little lower than the soft part. 

 The ventrals are acute pointed ; and their membranes, and 

 those of the pectorals, are delicate and transparent. The 

 pectorals and caudal are rounded. 



A drawing, made by a convict at Port Arthur, of this 

 species, presents the following colours. Ground tint of 

 the head, back and sides dark green. A lake-red stripe 

 commencing at the supra- scapular, and another beginning 

 above the base of the pectorals, run parallel to the back, 

 and unite behind the dorsal into a single stripe, which runs 

 to the extremity of the caudal. Over the beginning of the 

 anal a large blotch from the under stripe, but of a deeper 

 colour, descends nearly to the ventral surface. The breast, 

 belly and sides of the tail along the base of the anal, are 

 tinged with a more dilute and purplish lobe. All these 

 stripes are bounded by Berlin-blue lines, composed of a 

 series of streaks, one on each scale. The cheek is blue, 

 and the rest of the head green, traversed by lake-red lines. 

 The pectorals and ventrals are carmine, the dorsal purplish- 

 red, with many small blue dots between the summits of the 

 rays, a narrow vermilion border, and an extreme edging of 

 clear blue. The anal has a narrow stripe of vermilion 

 along its base, then a broad bar of primrose-yellow, edged 

 above and below with blue, and, lastly, a band of purple 

 as broad as the yellow one, spotted thickly with blue and 

 edged with the same. The caudal is plum-purple, dotted 

 with pale blue at the end. The specimens, though long 

 kept in spirits, still show some of these markings, and the 

 lake-red lines maybe enumerated more precisely from them 

 than from the drawing, viz., two of them cross the preorbitar, 

 three descend from the orbit over the cheek, and two cross 

 the temples to the nape, besides some undulating lines on 

 the interoperculum. I'hese lines are blue in the specimens 

 and red in the drawings, but a similar change of colour is 

 common among the Labri after death. The specimens 

 also show five short plum-blue lines on each side beneath 

 the pectorals, and three such lines on each side of the 

 anal, not shown in the drawing. Mr. Lempriere states, 

 that when newly taken this fish exhibits all the colours of 

 the rainbow. 



The vertebrae are nine abdominal and sixteen caudal 

 ones. The first caudal one has its descending process com- 

 posed of two slender arms, which spring directly from the 

 centrum, and meet only at their tips, enclosing a single, 

 wide, elliptical arch. The contents of the stomach were 

 small Crustacea, mixed with littoral sea-weeds. 



In Deputy Assistant-Commissary-General Neill's draw- 

 ings of the fish of King George's Sound, there is a repre- 

 sentation (No. 47) of this fi.sh, under the name of " kanup- 

 parill " or green fish. He states it to inhabit the rocky 

 shores of that locality, and to be rare. Mr. Lempriere 

 says, that at Port Arthur it is prized as an article of food. 



Length 11 inches. 



Hab. Coasts of Tasmania and South Australia. 



