64 
bones, with the cheek, are covered with small scales which do not 
extend to the preorbitar. In aspersus a small part of the cheek next 
the preorbitar is scaleless. In all these species the operculum and 
suboperculum are densely scaly. The integuments of the cheek of 
nigricans are full of pores, and the lips are large and fleshy. About 
forty-eight scales occur in a row between the gill-opening and caudal, 
with three or four rows in addition on the base of that fin. About 
seventeen compose a vertical row at the shoulder. The scales of the 
lateral line are, as in the other species, smaller than those above and 
below, which also overlap them. The exposed disk of a scale is rough, 
with minute points, but the exterior margin is thin and membranous. 
The base is faintly marked by a dozen or more slightly divergent fur- 
rows, which do not produce marginal crenatures. The sixth and 
tallest dorsal spine equals one-third of the height of the body and is 
higher than the soft rays, which rise considerably above the posterior 
spines. The third anal spine is more slender and considerably longer 
than the second one. None of them are strong. The caudal is 
forked to half its depth, and has acute lobes. 
In Mr. Neill’s drawing this fish is represented as having a dark 
greyish-black colour on the back, head and fins, and as being pale on 
the belly. The lips are flesh-coloured. Length of the specimen 21 
inches. The drawing is two feet long. 
CHEILODACTYLUS ASPERSUS, Richardson. 
Cheilodactylus carponemus, Richardson, Zool. Trans. vol. iii. p.99, 
exclus. synon. 
Radii.—Br. 6; D. 17/27; A. 3|11; C.138; P.8 et VII.; A. 15, 
specimens. 
This fish frequents Port Arthur in Van Diemen’s Land, and Dr. 
Lhotzky says that it is never taken at Sydney. In the ‘ Zoological 
Transactions’ for 1841 (vol. iii. p. 99) there is a notice of it, to which 
the reader is referred; but it is necessary to state that the number 
of fin rays there given are those of Ch. carponemus, as expressed in 
the ‘ Histoire des Poissons.’ I there pointed out some of the discre- 
pancies between the examples of this fish I had then before me and 
the description and figure of carponemus in the work just referred 
to; but being at that time very imperfectly aware of the number and 
variety of the Cheilodactyli existing in the Australian seas, I did not 
venture to indicate it as a proper species. This I am now enabled to 
do, after a careful comparison of the specimens then commented upon 
with Mr. Neill’s example of carponemus from King George’s Sound, 
the exact locality of the specimen of the latter described by Cuvier 
and Valenciennes. 
Ch. aspersus is a higher fish than carponemus, the greatest height 
of the body being contained only three times and one-third in the 
total length, caudal included. It is much compressed, with an acute 
back and a deeply-forked caudal. The more arched form of the 
spinous part of the dorsal fin, and the much stouter dorsal and anal 
spines, afford a ready means of distinguishing the dried specimens. 
The different colours and markings of the recent fish are very appa- 
