78 DR. RICHARDSON'S DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIAN FISH. 



Inches. Lines. 



Length of descending branch of stomach from gullet 1 8 



Length of pyloric branch 1 4 



Length of gut 15 



Centropristes salar, Salmoid Centropristes. — Centropristes solar, Zool. Proceed., 



June 25, 1839. 



Centr. operculo suboperculoque squamosis ; interoperculo seminudo ; preoperculo subden- 

 timlato.— Radii. Br. 7 - 7 ; P. 16 ; D. 9|16 ; V. IjS ; A. 3|10 ; C. 17f. 



Our single specimen of this fish is noted by Mr. Lempriere as being of the usual size 

 of the species, and having, when recent, a dark blue back and silvery belly, with scat- 

 tered spots of yellow and red. It is caught with the seine in great numbers, and is 

 much prized as an article of food. None of the original colours are now traceable in 

 the specimen, except the blue tint above the lateral line, and the silvery lustre of the 

 scales, which is considerable. 



Form. — The curvature of the back is rather greater than that of the belly ; the length 

 of the head equals the depth of the body at the fore part of the dorsal, or one-fourth of 

 the total length, caudal included, and somewhat exceeds twice the greatest thickness of 

 the body. There are five rows of scales on the operculum, the upper row containing three 

 scales and the lower one six : the border of the bone overlapping the suboperculum is naked. 

 There is a single row of six scales on the suboperculum, and one of ten or twelve on the 

 interoperculum, remote from its margin and diminishing rapidly in size as they approach 

 the lower jaw. The cheek is entirely covered with scales from the border of the orbit 

 to the ridge of the preoperculum, there being five rows beneath the eye and four behind 

 it : the posterior, broad, crescent-shaped limb of the preoperculum is covered with smooth 

 soft skin, marked with vein-like ramifications, which requires to be removed to permit 

 the finely-toothed margin and furrowed surface of the bone to be seen. The minute 

 serratures do not go higher than the rounded angle of the bone, the ascending limb 

 being nearly smooth. There is a single row of small scales on the labials, the three 

 lower scales being larger than the five succeeding ones. 



In the ' Histoire des Poissons' Centropristes truttaceus is said to have merely some 

 scales on the operculum, and none whatever on the suboperculum and interoperculum. 

 It has also eighteen soft rays in the dorsal, only nine in the anal, and but twelve in the 

 pectoral, yet in all other respects that description corresponds so minutely with the 

 specimen which we have named C. salar, that one might be tempted to consider it as the 

 same species, if the example sent to the authors of the work in question could be sup- 

 posed to have been so much injured as to have lost many of the scales of its gill-cover ; 

 but as nothing is hinted to that effect, the only alternative is to consider the one from 

 Port Arthur as a new species. A reference to the subjoined table of dimensions will 



