DR. RICHARDSON'S DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIAN FISH. 77 



their inferior halves, and thinning off at the contracted fundus. The saccular appendage 

 of the pyloric branch has the inner coat disposed in strong curved folds, but the direct 

 tube is formed of smooth delicate membranes. Though the pylorus is much contracted, 

 no distinct valvular apparatus was detected there. Immediately below it six short 

 slender caeca are attached to a dilated part of the gut. Inferiorly the intestine is very 

 slender and delicate. The air-bladder appeared to be round, without processes, but it 

 was too much injured to permit its form to be precisely ascertained. 



Vertebrae 26 : the four first are destitute of transverse processes, which exist in the six 

 following ones. In the ninth, tenth and eleventh, the processes are connected near 

 their origin by a transverse bridge of bone, forming a canal for the vessels. In the 

 twelfth vertebra the processes diverge much less than in the preceding ones, and have a 

 more extensive bony union at their base. It is to this vertebra that the point of the 

 long and strong interspinous bone supporting the two first spines of the anal is apphed. 

 The succeeding caudal vertebrae have their elongated inferior processes simple, and 

 merely perforated at the base for the passage of vessels. 



Dimensions. 



Inches. Lines. 

 Total length to tips of caudal lobes (jaws retracted) 10 6 



Length from tip of snout to base of caudal 8 6 



Length from tip of snout to end of dorsal 7 4 



Length from tip of snout to beginning of dorsal 2 8 



Length from tip of snout to tip of gill-cover 2 9 



Length from tip of snout to end of anal 7 l 



Leui^th from tip of under jaw depressed to ditto 7 6 



Length from tip of under jaw to anus 510 



Length from tip of under jaw to ventrals 3 6 



Length of pectorals 2 9J 



Length of dorsal 5 



Length of anal -. 1 5 



Length of ventrals 1 9 



Length of caudal lobes 2 4 



Depth of caudal fork 9 



Length of naked space between anal and caudal 1 5 



Length of naked space between dorsal and caudal 1 2 



Height of body at the pectorals 3 4 



Diameter of ditto (thickness) 1 C 



Breadth of head at upper edge of the orbits 9^ 



Diameter of orbit 5 



Height of fifth spine of dorsal 9| 



