1. MUftlL. 451 



4i). Mugil compressus. 



D. 4 1 i A. J. L. lat. 2S. L, transv. 10. 



Adipose eyelid none ; upper lip rather thin. The greatest depth 

 of the body is below the spinous dorsal, where it is contained four 

 times and two-thirds in the total length. The extremity of the max- 

 illary is conspicuous behind and below the angle of the mouth. The 

 two anterior dorsal spines of nearly equal length and strength. 



New South Wales. 



a. One foot long. Presented by the Medical Officers R. A. — Two 

 other specimens are in the Fort Pitt Collection. 



Description of the specimen. — The head is rather elongate and de- 

 pressed, its length being one-fifth of the total, and its depth thi-ee- 

 fifths of its length. The body is strongly compressed, especially on its 

 posterior portion ; the least depth of the free portion of the tail is one- 

 half of the length of the head. The interorbital space is very slightly 

 convex, and its width is two-fifths of the length of the head. Snout 

 broad, obtuse, rather longer than the eye. The angle made by the front 

 margins of the mandibulaiy bones is obtuse, the depth of the cleft of 

 the mouth being two-fifths of its width. The free space at the chin, 

 between the two mandibles, is short, lanceolate, as in M. Ju/pselopterus, 

 only rather narrower. The teeth of the upper Hp are minute, scarcely 

 visible ; lower labial teeth none. The maxillaiy is bent downwards 

 below and behind the angle of the mouth, where its extremity is 

 visible ; the pra;orbital is scaly, with a shallow notch anteriorly, and 

 with its margins very distinctly serrated ; its extremity is obliquely 

 truncated, so that the anterior angle is pointed and the posterior ob- 

 tuse. The nostrils are close together, and the posterior is nearer to 

 the anterior than to the orbit. A deep groove before the vomer. 



The pectoral fin is inserted a little above the middle of the depth 

 of the body, and has no elongate pointed scale in its axil ; it extends 

 to the ninth scale of the lateral line, and its length equals the distance 

 of the opercular margin from the front nostril. The base of the 

 ventral is somewhat nearer to that of the pectoral than to the ver- 

 tical from the dorsal ; it is comparatively large, its length being equal 

 to the distance of the opercular margin from the front edge of the 

 orbit ; its spine is strong ; the pointed scale in its axil short. There 

 are eighteen series of scales between the snout and the spinous dorsal 

 fin ; the latter commences somewhat nearer to the caudal fin than 

 to the snout, above the eighth scale of the lateral line ; the length 

 of its two anterior dorsal spines is two-thirds of that of the head, 

 but they do not extend to the origin of the soft dorsal, if laid back- 

 wards. The soft dorsal and anal fins are scaly anteriorly ; the former 

 commences above the sixteenth scale of the lateral hne, or above the 

 fifth soft ray of the anal fin. The anal fin is higher than the spinous 

 dorsal, and much higher than long. The caudal is deeply emar- 

 ginate, with the lobes equal in length, not quite one-fourth of the 

 total. The scales are large, semielliptical, with a short longitudinal 

 groove in the centre, and with several others on the basal portion. 



2g 2 



