66 
“Knelvek.”’ The natives spear it on sandy banks, but say that it is 
rare. Its scales are smooth, and the second and third anal spines are 
moderately long and equal to each other. The suboperculum is nar- 
row, and together with the other opercular bones and cheek is scaly. 
The figure is one-third of the size of the specimen. The scale is 
magnified. A considerable part of its disk retains the small asperi- 
ties or ptenoid teeth, which do not however extend to the margin of 
the scale, that being, as is usual in the genus, thin and membranous. 
CHEILODACTYLUS NIGRIPES, Richardson. 
Radii.—Br. 6; D. 18|26; A. 3/10; C. 13; P. 7 et V.; V. 1[5, 
spec. 
The aborigines of King George’s Sound had no name for this spe- 
cies, and no drawing of it was made by Mr. Neill. The only speci- 
men of it obtained was speared by a native named Murrianne, and 
measures 13 inches in length. It has a conical eminence on the pre- 
frontal bone, like that existing in Ch. gibbosus ; its face is short, with 
the profile ascending almost as much as in the species just named. 
The length of the preorbitar is rather less than the diameter of the 
orbit, the eye is placed midway between the gill-opening and mouth, 
and the interoperculum is only about half as wide as the disk of the pre- 
operculum. The cheek and all the pieces of the gill-cover are densely 
scaly. The second of the simple pectoral rays is the longest and it 
falls short of the anus, while only about one-third of its length pro- 
jects beyond the membrane. The spinous part of the dorsal is arched 
anteriorly. Its fifth and longest spine rather exceeds one-third of 
the height of the body. The preceding ones are graduated to the 
first, whose height is only a fifth part of the fifth one, but the de- 
crease of the posterior spines is much less rapid, the last one having 
half the length of the fifth. The soft rays rise to nearly twice the 
height of the posterior spines, rendering the fin notched. The third 
anal spine is somewhat longer than the second one, which is stouter, 
but the spines generally are of moderate thickness, and are com- 
pressed. The caudal is forked to half its depth. The ventral spine 
is long and slender. The scales are without asperities, and the ex- 
posed part of their disk exhibits the concentric rings of structure 
distinctly. About sixty-one exist in a row between the gill-opening 
and caudal, exclusive of three or four on that fin. The teeth on the 
jaws are slender and closely set. 
In the dried specimen the ventrals are pitch-black, and the other 
fins are neatly equally dark. The body is also dark, but in the 
absence of drawings or descriptions of the recent fish we cannot state 
its proper tints. 
CHEILODACTYLUS ZONATUS, Cuy. et Val. 
Cheilodactylus zonatus, Cuv. et Val. vol. v. p. 365; Rich. Rep. 
Brit. Assoc. 1845, p. 239. 
Radii.—D. 17|31; A. 3|8; C. 142; P. 8 et VI. spec. 
This fish, which is common to the China and Australian seas, 
appears to be called the “ Zebra-fish’’ by the sealers who frequent 
