137 



Eqdiila SEERrLiFERA. Ricliavclsoii. 



Capros austrai.is. Richardson. 



Radii:— B. 5; D. 8|17; A. 2|14; V. 1|5; P. 15. 



Capros amlmlis, Richardson, Zoo). Trans, 

 to Austr. Iclith. Annals of Nat. Hist. xi. p. 171. 



Idem, Contr. 



Plate LIX., figs. 12—14. 



Radii:— B. 8; D. 9|.30; A. 2|31 ; C. 13| ; P. 11 ; V. 1|6. 



I have many doubts of this fish being a distinct species 

 from the Eqitula ensifera of the Histoire des Poissons, 

 which is the Scomber edenttilus of Bloch, pi. 428. Capt. 

 Ross procured seven or eight specimens at Sidney, but 

 they are all more or less mutilated in the rajs or mem- 

 branes of the fins ; and some deficiencies in the largest 

 example, which is figured in Plate LIX., have been sup- 

 plied from the smaller ones. 



The profile is steeper between the nose and first dorsal 

 than that of e)isifera, and the second dorsal spine is some- 

 what taller, if i31och's figure be correct. It has a thin 

 crest in front of its whole length, which M. Valenciennes 

 compares to the blade of a sword; but the posterior face 

 of the spine, instead of being equally trenchant, is rounded 

 with a scarcely perceptible crest. The length of this spine 

 exceeds half the height of the body. The third and fourth 

 dorsal spines and the third anal spine have broader ante- 

 rior crests than the second one ; but these crests, instead 

 of being quite entire as in the latter, are strongly serrated. 

 M. Valenciennes does not notice these serrated blades or 

 crests in his descriptions of the spines of any of the spe- 

 cies, but they are represented in Buchanan-Hamilton's 

 figure of Equida rticonia (Plate 12), and exist also in 

 E. iiucJialis of the Fauna Japonica, whence I am led 

 to conjecture that they may possess a generic character. 

 The second anal spine is shaped like the second dorsal, 

 but has a rather more evident posterior crest. All the 

 spines in both fins are wrinkled on the sides in a pe- 

 culiar manner. In other particulars of structure M. Va- 

 lenciennes' minute description of ensifera applies to this 

 fish. The pectoral and ventral fins differ in our figure 

 from Bloch's representation of ensifera, but from the 

 state of the specimens I cannot be certain that they are 

 absolutely correct ; and, from the integuments having 

 shrunk, the artist has represented the interspinous bone 

 as projecting before the anal spines in a manner which 

 it does not do in the recent fish. The teeth are very 

 fine and densely crowded, and take the curve of the 

 edge of the jaw in a peculiar manner. Indications of 

 nine or ten vertical bars, descending from the back down 

 the upper half of the sides, may be traced in certain lights, 

 and I suspect that a dark spot existed on the spinous dor- 

 sal. One of the small specimens shows such a spot dis- 

 tinctly, but the height of the body of this individual is not 

 quite so great in proportion as in the one figured. Another 

 small specimen has the front crest of the second dorsal 

 spine serrated, so that there is either some variety in this 

 respect or more than one species in Sir James Ross's col- 

 lection, which the imperfect condition of the specimens 

 will not allow me to determine. 

 Length 3g- inches. 

 Hab. Coasts of Australia. 



Plate LIX , figs. 1—5. 



In the Zoological Transactions, as tpioted above, I 

 named this fish from a drawing made by a convict in Tas- 

 mania for Dr. Lhotsky ;* and in the Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History, as above quoted, I gave a full account 

 of this drawing, which proves to be erroneous in the num- 

 bers of the gill and fin-rays, and in some minor points. 

 The specimen brought home by Captain Ross, which was 

 procured by him at Sidney, enables me to give the figure 

 in Plate LIX. and the subjoined description, though the 

 tips of some of the soft dorsal and anal rays, and those of 

 the pectorals, having been mutilated, I cannot be certain 

 of the exact form of these fins. In the number of branchi- 

 ostegous rays, the form and structure of the scales, and in 

 some other particulars which will be noticed in the follow- 

 ing description, Capros aiislralis differs from aper. 



Its body, which is fully as much compressed as that of 

 aper, has a more regularly-elliptical profile, whose vertical 

 diameter, under the commencement of the dorsal, is equal 

 to two-thirds of the longitudinal one, measuring the latter 

 from the tip of the lower jaw, with the mouth shut, to the 

 setting on of the trunk of the tail behind the dorsal and 

 anal. The face is not concave over the eye, except 

 when the protrusion of the jaws depresses the profile, 

 by the withdrawal of the pedicles of the intermaxillaries. 

 The eye is smaller than that of aper, the preorbitar is 

 rounde"d and quite entire on the edge, instead of being 

 crenulated or lobed, and the maxillaries descend when the 

 mouth is projected. When the mouth is closed the lower 

 jaw ascends,' and forms the rather acute apex of the ellipse. 

 The length of the head in that condition is contained 

 thrice and a half in the entire length of the fish, caudal 

 included. The preoperculnm, instead of resembling that 

 of aper, is more like that of Zeus faber, and is even longer, 

 with a moderate curvature, a narrow disk, a minutely and 

 irregularly crenated thin posterior edge, and no posterior 

 rectangular expansion at the bend as in aper. The scaly 

 cheek is high and oblique, like that of faber, in conse- 

 quence of the length and inclination of the preoperculnm. 

 The bony operculum and suboperculum together are twice 

 as high as long, and are truncated at the tips ; but an addition 

 of membrane gives a somewhat triangular but obtuse form 

 to the gill-plate. The suboperculum nearly equals the oper- 

 culum in size, and the long interoperculum shows behind 

 the preoperculnm, both above and below its bend. The 

 jaws are armed with fine microscopical teeth, as are also 

 the chevron of the vomer and edge of the palatine bones. 



* The conjecture hazarded in page 36 as to this drawing probably re- 

 ferring to Zeus auslralis proves to be erroneous. 



