STDDIES IN AUSTRALIAN FISHES McCULLOfiH. 175 



Family SCORPIDID^E. 



Genus SCORPIS, Cnvier and Vulejirieiniex. 



Smrpis, Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., viii., 



1831, p. 503 {S. georgiioiii)^, Cnv. and Val.). LL, 



Giinther, Brit. Mus. Cat. Fisli., ii., 1860, p. 63. Id., 

 Vaillant, Bull. Mas. Hist. Nat., iii., 1897, p. 84. 



Ai/euor, Castelnau, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, iii., 1879, 



p. 371 (A. modestus. Cast.). Id., Vaillant, Loc. rit., 



p. 86. 

 NejitoticJithys, Hutton, Trans. N. Zeal. Inst., xxii., 1890, 



p. 278 (N. violaceus, Hutton). 

 G(esiosn))n(, Kaup, Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk., i., 1864, p. 161 



(no type; later called C. si'eboJdi, Blkr.). 



Dejinition. — Body compressed, somewhat elevated or oblong- 

 ovate. Preopercle serrated. Body and greater part of head 

 covered v?ith rather small, ctenoid scales. Jaws with bands 

 of teeth, and an outer, more or less enlarged series ; patches 

 of minute teeth present on the vomer, palatines, pterygoids 

 and tongue. One dorsal with nine or ten spines increasing 

 in length backwards, and twenty-four, to thirty rays. Anal 

 with three spines and twenty-four to thirty rays. Soft 

 portions of the vei-tical fins scaly, the spinous portion with a 

 scaly sheath ; seven branchiostegals. Pseudobranchiae present. 

 Aii'bladder present. Pyloric appendages in large numbers. 



Kei/ to the Augtrnlliui species: — 



a. Body deep, the depth more than half the length. Soft dorsal and 

 anal fins strongly prodviced anteriorly. 



h. Body with darker cross-bands georgiamis. 



<K(. Body narrower, the depth half or less than half the length. Soft 

 dorsal and anal fins not or only slightly j^roduced anteriorly. 

 Body withoiit darker cross-bands. 



c. About as many rays in the dorsal as in the anal fin. 



d. Scales smaller, more than 100 above the lateral line. Maxillary 

 as broad as its distance from the eye cequiiiiniiis.' 



dd. Scales larger, less than 100 above the lateral line. Maxillary 

 broader than its distance from the eye. 



e. Anal rays equal to or more numerous than those of the dorsai. 

 Interorbital space less convex, eye larger lineolatus. 



ee. Anal rays less numerous than those of the dorsal. Inter- 

 orbital space very convex, eye smaller violaceus. 



cc. Dorsal with thirty, anal with twenty-three rays oblungus. 



