134 RECORD!;! OF THK AUSTRALIAN ML'SEUM. 



preserved though it lias lost all its scales. These are preserved in a 

 smaller exainple from the Parramatta River estuary, which was collected 

 by Mi\ J. Dous^las Ogilby in 1886, and has served to complete the 

 description and figure. 



Hahittt. — Ogilby recorded that this sjjecies was plentiful in the 

 Parx'amatta River estuary, numbers being obtainable any moi iiiiig in the 

 fish market among prawns from that locality. It is also commonly 

 secured by net fishermen on the zostei'a flats around Port Jackson. Stead 

 recorded that the species, like many others of the family, carries its eggs 

 in the month until they hatch. A specimen in the Australian Museum 

 has the mouth crammed with eggs, each of which is as lai-ge as the i)upil 

 of the eye, and many others are hanging outside the jaws. 



Localities. — A number of specimens are in the Australian Museum 

 from Port Jackson, and two from the Clarence River estuary. Ogilby 

 has recorded the species from the estuary of the Brisbane River, 

 Queensland, where it is abundant. 



AL)EXA1'0<;0N WooliI, .S^». tmc. 



(Plate xxi., tig. 3). 



Br. 7 ; D. vi, i/8 ; A. ii/8 ; P. 12 ; V. i/5 ; C. 17. L. lat. about 25. 



Depth 3'8 in the length to the hypural joint ; head 2*7 in the same. 

 Diameter of the eye 3'5 in the head, longer than the snout, and a little 

 gieater than the interorbital wiilth ; snout 4*6, intei'orbital space 37 in 

 the head. Second dorsal ray 22 in the head and a little longer than that 

 of the anal ; caudal peduncle 1"4 in the head. 



Snout conical, the lower jaw projecting. Nostrils large, separated by 

 a narrow interspace ; the anterior with a low membranous border. 

 Hindei' angle of the maxilla somewhat produced, I'eaching the vertical of 

 the middle of the eye. Both the preopercular margin and the infra- 

 marginal crest ai-eentire ; of)erculum membranous, its spines rudimentary. 

 A narrow band of villiform teeth in each jaw, and microscopic teeth are 

 present on the vomer and palatines; tongue smooth. (Jill-rakers slender, 

 fourteen on the lower limb of the first arch ; those at the hinder angle are 

 about half as long as the eye. A thick silverj^ gland on each side of the 

 base of the tongue, from which a silver band extends backward to near 

 the hypni'al joint as in ^4. roxeiijnxfer. 



Head laigely covered by a membrane which extends backward onto 

 the neck, and is peimeated by canals and pores. A single scale at the 

 origin of the lateral line is cycloid ; all the others are missing, but the 

 scale-pits indicate that there were about 25 on the lateral line. 



First dorsal rounded, the third spine longest. Second dorsal rounded, 

 the second ray longest, and much longer than the third spine; most of 

 the rays are bifurcate. Anal rounded, its origin and termination beliind 

 the same points of the second dorsal. Pectoral very small, rounded, the 

 fourth ray longest but not nearly reaching the vertical of the vent. 

 Veutrals inserted in advance of the pcctitrals and not quite reaching the 

 vent when adpressed. Caudal emarginate. 



