FISHES FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA — WAITE. 79 



of special organs of touch in the complicated nose-leaf, and delicately 

 formed ears and membranes, which may permit them to commence and 

 continue their hunt for insect prey at a time when other Bats have 

 retired to their sleeping-places."'^ 



The lai'ge size of the genitaUa and the development of special 

 organs in this fish, indicates that copulation actually takes place, 

 a circumstance also distinctly correlated with blindness. 



Loc. — The single specimen forwarded is a male, 152 mm. in 

 length, and was taken off Fremantle. 



MONACAXTHUS CHINENSIS, Bloch. 



Batistes chinensis, Bloch, Ichty., ii., 1787, p. 29, pi. Hi., fig. 1. 

 Tmc. — Fremantle. 



MONACANTHUS MEGALOURUS, PdchanlsOH. 



MonacantJiHs meffalourus, Richardson, Icon. Pise, 1843, p. 5, pi. 

 i., fig. 3. 



Loc. — Houtman's Abrolhos. 



PSEUDOMONACANTHUS GALII, SJ). nof. 



(Plate xvi.) 



Length of head 3-2 ; height of body at the first anal ray 2-8 ; 

 and length of caudal 5-1 in the total. The eye is almost round 

 and lies midway between the end of the snout and the first dorsal 

 ray ; its diameter is one-fifth the length of the head ; the 

 interorbital space is convex and contained 4-1 times in the same. 



The gill opening is oblique and placed immediately beneath 

 the eye, it is distant therefrom about the diameter of the orbit. 

 The nostrils are situated in a shallow depression half a diameter 

 in advance of the eye, each in a short cutaneous tube. 



The head is deeper than long, a little concave on the snout, 

 slightly tumid above the eye ; the lower profile is moderately 

 sti'aight to the pelvic spine. 



The dorsal spine is placed above the last third of the orbit, and 

 nearer to the rays than the end of the snout, it is without distinct 

 barbs, the front and sides being granular ; its length approaches 

 half that of the head. The rays are highest medially, the longest 

 being one-fourth the length of the head. The anal arises beneath 

 the sixth dorsal ray and is continued posteriorly beyond that fin 

 to which it is similar in form, but its rays are not quite so high. 



^ Dobson.— Cat. Chiroptera Brit. Mu8 , 1878, p. 100. 



