28 NEW SOUTH WALES 



Of tlie genus Blennius we have only two species, but there are six of 

 Fetroscirtes, which is a fish without scales, and a long single spinous 

 dorsal fin. The teeth are also a long single series, with a strong curved 

 canine tooth behind. The gill opening is reduced to a small slit above 

 the root of the pectoral fin, and the ventrals are curved oi-gans of two 

 or three strong rays. They are all small species, but look formidable. 

 They frequent the pools of rocks. 



Cristiceps is another kind of Blenny, of which there are many species 

 in Australia, and six in New South Wales. In this genus there are 

 two dorsal fins, and the ventrals have one long spine, with two or three 

 rays. The gill opening is also wide. One remai'kable feature about 

 these fishes, which are often most brilliantly coloured with tints of 

 bright green, violet, purple, yellow, and carmine, is that they bring 

 forth their young alive. The young fishes are admirable objects for 

 seeing the circulation of the blood under the microscope. 



The "Wrasses. 



Some of our Wrasses or Labridce will be described elsewhere, as they 

 are useful as food fishes, but there is one genus, Labrichthys, which is so 

 numerously represented that, though not much caught as food fish, it 

 deserves a special notice. It has the characters of the family, but the 

 body is compressed, covered with large scales, and a more or less 

 pointed snout. The opercles are scaly, and the cheeks more or less so, 

 while the pre-opercle is not serrated, and the lateral line is continuous. 

 The teeth are in a single series, but sometimes an interior line, and 

 generally a canine tooth behind. There are nine spines and eleven rays 

 in the dorsal fin and three and ten in the anal. The difference between 

 these fishes and the Gropers (Cossyplius) is that the latter have four 

 anterior canine teeth in each jaw. They are all brightly-coloured fish, 

 but not growing to any size. We have no less than twenty-seven 

 species in Australian waters, of which one-third are caught upon our 

 coasts. 



Scopelidse. 



The family is remarkable for containing fishes which have luminous 

 glands upon them for giving light to their path in the deep. We have 

 none of this genus (Scopelus), but other genera of the family, which 

 have the most aAvful-looking teeth that a fish can possess. If any one 

 will turn to page 586 of Giinther's Study of Fishes he will see what 

 is meant, and what kind of an animal this fish must be when 6 feet long. 

 It is called Plagyodns ferox. It has been caught off" Tasmania, and very 

 probably will be found off" our coasts. At page 42 of the same work 

 there is a portrait of another unamiable-looking member of the same 

 family. This is a Saurus, of which we have one species, and three of 

 Saurida, a closely allied genus, having a few more teeth. Fortunately 

 they are not large. 



Sea-horses. 



This is a name applied to the genus Hippocampus. These strange 

 fishes are known in Europe as well as in Australia, and derive their 

 name from the resemblance of the head and fore-part of the body to 



