78 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXVI. 



ADDITIONS TO THE FISH FAUNA OF VICTORIA. 



No. 2. 

 By J. A. Kershaw, F.E.S., National Museum. 

 {Read before the Field Naturalists' Olnb of Victoria, IWi Sept., 1909.) 

 LoPHOTES CRISTATUS, Johnson. 



In the early part of last month, Mr. W, H. Baldwin, while 

 riding along the shore about 20 miles east of Apollo Bay, noticed 

 what appeared to be a strange fish floundering about in the 

 shallow water. On dismounting, he found it to be a fish about 

 4 feet long, with an unusually square-shaped head, surmounted 

 by a long, erect spine, and large and slightly prominent eyes, 

 giving to it a rather fierce appearance. 



Being afraid to handle it, for fear, as he explained, of being 

 poisoned, he endeavoured to land it by means of a stockwhip he 

 was carrying. Finding the animal altogether too lively, however, 

 he secured a net, by means of which he succeeded in capturing 

 it without serious injury. 



The specimen was forwarded to the National Museum, where it 

 arrived in a perfectly fresh and firm condition, although a week 

 had elapsed since its capture. 



It proved to be a fine example of a species of the extremely 

 rare Crested Band-fish, Lophotes, five species of which have, so 

 far, been desc^ibed. Of these L. cepedianus, Giorna, and L. 

 siculus. Swains., are recorded from the Mediterranean; L. cristatus, 

 Johnson, from Madeira ; L. capellei, Temm. and Schl., from 

 Japan ; and L. fiskei, Giinth., from Cape Colony, South Africa, 

 and New Zealand. 



Of the species already described, the specimen here dealt with 

 agrees most closely with L. cristatus, Johnson,* and I have little 

 hesitation in referring it to that species. 



The body is smooth, elongate, and compressed, with fine 

 reticulated markings along the belly and the anterior portion of 

 the back, its total length, exclusive of the caudal, measuring 

 slightly less than 4 feet 2 inches. It greatest height is 8 inches, 

 and its thickness i % inches. The dorsal line of the body is 

 practically straight for the greater part of its length, sloping away 

 towards the tail. The anterior portion of tlie ventral edge is 

 slightly curved. 



The head is abruptly elevated in a high, fleshy crest, sur- 

 mounted on the extreme anterior point of which is a long, 

 flexible, flattened spine, 9 inches in length, and furnished with a 

 rather broad fleshy membrane for nearly its whole length, by the 

 lower edge of which it is connected with the dorsal fin. 



The dorsal fin is continuous to the tail, its base being sheathed 



* Proc. Zool. Soc. Loncl., 1863, p. 38. 



