79 



Agonostomus. 



Agonostomus, Bennett, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1830, p. 166 ; 

 Agonostoma, Giinther, Catal. Fish, iii. p. 461, 1861, et auctt. 



Body elongate-oblong, strongly compressed ; head moderate, 

 the snout somewhat pointed and depressed ; mouth moderate 

 and sublateral, the lips thin ; premaxillaries narrow, pro- 

 tractile ; maxillary straight, not bent downwards posteriorly, 

 extending beyond the lower margin of the preorbital and 

 entirely hidden beneath it and the anterior bones of the sub- 

 orbital ring, without supplemental bDne ; lower lip included ; 

 dentary bones of the lower jaw rounded in front, with an 

 indistinct notch at the symphysis ; adipose eyelid rudi- 

 mentary ; preorbital denticulated, its lower border without 

 conspicuous notch ; opercular bones entire ; gill-rakers 

 moderate, rather stout ; six branchiostegals ; pseudobranchiae 

 present ; both jaws with a narrow band of small curved 

 teeth, the lower with a series of fine cilia in addition to the 

 teeth ; teeth on the vomer, palatines, pterygoids, and tongue. 

 Two separate dorsal fins, with iv. i 9 rays, the origin of the 

 first midway between the base of the caudal and the extremity 

 of the snout ; anal fin originating well in advance of and 

 much more developed than the second dorsal, with iii 12 

 rays ; ventrals small and rounded, with a feeble spine j 

 pectorals moderate, pointed with 17 rays, the upper ones the 

 longest, the second undivided and but little stronger than the 

 third ; caudal deeply emarginate, with the lobes acute. 

 Scales small, feebly ciliated ; snout naked ; preorbital scaly j 

 no enlarged scale in the axil of the pectoral ; a scaly process 

 between the ventral fins. Vertebrae 24 (11 + 13). 



Deriv. — a priv., yQvos, an angle, crrofia, mouth ; in allusion 

 to the rounded shape of the lower jaw. 



Type.—^Agonostomus telfairii, Bennett. 



Agonostomus foksteri. 



Mugil albula forsterif Bloch and Schn. Syst. Ichth. p. 120, 

 1801. Mugil for steri, Cuv. and Yal. Hist. Nat. Poiss. xi. p. 

 141, 1836 ; Eichards Yoy. Erebus and Terror, Fish, p. 77, 

 pi. xliv. fE. 20-26, 1846. Dajaus diemensis, Richards. 

 Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1840, p. 25 and Trans. Zool. Soc. 

 Lond. iii. p. 123, 1841, and Voy. Erebus and Terror, 

 Fish. p. 37, pi. xxvi. if. 1-4, 1846 ; Jenyns, Zool. Beagle» 

 Fish. p. 82, 1842. Mugil alhula, Forster, Descr. Anim. ed. 

 Licht. p. 145, 1844. Agonostoma forsteri, Gnth. Catal. 

 Fish. iii. p. 465, 1861 ; Hutton, Fish. N. ZeaL p. 37, 1872 ; 

 Hector, Edib. Fish. N. Zeal, p 114, pi. vi. f. 58 ; Johnston, 

 Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasmania, 1882, pp. 86, 123 ; Sherrin, 

 Handb. N.Z. Fish, p. 65, 1886 ; Agonostoma diemensis. 



