366 



2. TRACHINOPS. 



Body compressed, elongate, covered with rather small, not ciliated 

 scales. Mouth not protractile. Dorsal and anal fins long, the 

 former with fourteen, the latter \\ath three spines. Ventral com- 

 posed of one spine and four rays, which are not elongate. Teeth in 

 the j^ws, on the vomer and the palatine bones ; none of the bones of 

 the head serrated. Five branchiostegals ; giUs three and a half, 

 pseudobranchise ; the gill-membranes are not united below the throat. 



Carnivorous fishes from the coasts of Australia. 



1. Trachinops taeniatus. 



D.ii. A.± L.lat.62. 



Back brownish-black, with a white band running on each side of 

 the base of the dorsal fin. 



a. Adult. Australia. 



b, c. Young. New South Wales. Presented by J. B. Bennett, Esq. 



Description. — The head and body are;, compressed ; the latter is not 

 much lower posteriorly than anteriorly. Us greatest depth being one- 

 sixth of the total length (the caudal fin not included). The length of 

 the head is one-fifth of the distance between snout ahd base of the 

 caudal. The interorbital space is convex, and its width is less than 

 that of the orbit, which is one-fourth of the length of the head. The 

 snout is obtuse and shorter than the eye ; the cleft of the mouth is 

 oblique, rather wide, the maxillary extending beyond the centre of 

 the eye. The lower jaw is somewhat longer than the upper. The 

 teeth are small, cardiform, in narrow bands ; each jaw has two or 

 three larger ones anteriorly on each side. Gill-opening wide, the gill- 

 membranes not being united or attached to the isthmus; opercles scaly. 



The pectoral fin is considerably shorter than the head : the ventral 

 is still shorter, and inserted immediately below its root ; its spine is 

 very distinct and pungent. The dorsal fin is continuous, anteriorly 

 low, gradually becoming higher posteriorly, but always lower than 

 the body ; it commences above the root of the pectoral and terminates 

 at some distance from the caudal ; its spines are stiif. The anal is 

 similar in form to the soft dorsal ; the first spine is the shortest, the 

 third the longest. The caudal is pointed, and its middle rays are pro- 

 duced into a filament as long as the fin itself. Young specimens have 

 the caudal simply rounded. 



The lateral line luns immediately below the base of the dorsal 

 fin, and is interrupted below its end ; the posterior portion runs 

 along the middle of the tail. 



The upper half of the fish, the dorsal and anal fins are brownish- 

 black, the lower whitish ; a white band, commencing above the 

 orbit, runs along the upper part of the back and passes on the base 

 of the soft portion of the dorsal fin ; the black colour of the side of 

 the back is continued as a band over the middle of the caudal fin and 

 its filaments, leaving the upper and lower parts of the fin whitish. 



Total length forty-two lines. 



