3o8 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. 



is suggested in Dr. Giinther's "Catalogue of Fishes," Vol. III., p. 527, that it may be regarded 

 as a Chelonian, or tortoise-like form, among fishes. 



Figs. 4 and 9 of Chromo plate XVI. represent two little gems of the parrot-fish tribe, 

 referable to the genus Labroides. Both of them occur in some abundance in the coral pools of the 

 Lady Elliot Island reef, and have also been observed by the author farther north. Having no 

 hand-nets at the time, attempts to capture them were unsuccessful, and the coloured drawings of 

 them here reproduced were accordingly made from the fish as observed swimming in the pools. 

 They may, consequently, while correct as to tint, be less strictly accurate in delineation than the 

 figures drawn from handled specimens. So far as the identification of these two fish with 

 previously described species is concerned, the one, Fig. 4, bears some slight resemblance to the 

 black and white banded Labroides dimidiatus, C. & V. ; but concerning the second form, no near 

 affinity has been discovered. In both instances, it has been considered desirable to associate the 

 fish, at any rate provisionally, with a new specific title; that proposed for the black form, with 

 turquoise stripes, being Labroides bicincta, and that for the blue-bodied and yellow-finned variety, 

 Labroides auropinna. The very small black and white striped fish represented by Fig. 7 of the 

 same Chromo plate is apparently a young example of Amphiprion Clarkii, Bann., and is possibly 

 associated commensally, in its adult stage, with some large sea-anemone, as is the case with 

 Amphiprion percula, Lacep., and A. bicinctiis, Rupp., referred to in a previous chapter The grey 

 fish with a yellow tail, delineated in Fig. 1 1 of the same plate, is an undetermined species of 

 Glyphidodon, belonging to the same family group provisionally named Glyphidodon liiteo-caudata. 



One of the most beautifully tinted fish in this series is that represented by Fig. 8, associated 

 with the title of Polyacanthus Queenslandice . Some diffidence has been experienced in assigning 

 this fish to the genus Polyacanthus, it being, as hitherto known, an essentially fresh-water genus 

 inhabiting the rivers and estuaries of Hindoostan, China, and the islands of the Malay Archipelago. 

 The genus belongs further to a family, the Labyrinthici, furnished with a special epi-branchial 

 organ in which they retain water, and by which they are enabled to keep their gills moist and 

 to sustain life for considerable intervals when removed from their native element. The well- 

 known climbing perch, Anabas scandens, C. & V., and the excellent-eating Gourami, Osphromcnus 

 olfax, Lacp., belong to the same peculiarly modified family group. The single specimen obtained, 

 from which this drawing was made, was caught by one of the seamen of H.M.S. Rambler, on the 

 rocky foreshore of Adolphus Island, off" Cape York, at the entrance to Torres Strait ; but it was 

 unfortunately subsequently lost, through the overcrowding of specimens in the receptacle used for 

 its conservation. The general shape of the fish, and the peculiar elongated terminal contours of the 

 dorsal, anal, caudal, and pectoral fins, correspond essentially with those of Polyacanthus ciipamts, 

 C. & v., figured in Plate LXXVIII. of Dr. F. Day's "Fishes of India," with a recorded habitat at the 

 Malabar and Coromandel coasts, and as also found there in ditches and shallow waters within, or 

 not far removed from tidal influence. It is furthermore remarked by Dr. Day that, while the more 



