118 DR. RICHARDSON'S DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIAN FISH. 



or merely covered with nacre. The body above the lateral line is also scaly ; the scales, 

 though larger than those on the head, being still small, very thin, and firmly imbedded 

 in the skin. The lateral line is formed by fifty shining nacry scales, raised above the 

 surrounding integuments, and is bounded superiorly by a grove : these scales, though 

 more conspicuous by their lustre, are not larger than the others, and are each furnished 

 with a tubular elevation, which turns upwards towards its termination, becoming also 

 more slender. Beneath the lateral line the integuments are wrinkled, as if they covered 

 large scales ; but if such scales do actually exist, they are so delicate as not to be distin- 

 guishable from the nacry epidermis. The structure of the scales is cycloid, with about 

 eight furrows on the base, producing as many marginal crenatures, but not reaching to 

 the centre. 



The coracoid bone (humeral of Cuvier) terminates above in an acute point, which 

 may be made to project at the lateral line ; and the lower end of the bone, where it 

 meets its fellow, forms a small angular projection beneath the gill-opening. The second 

 bone in the scapular chain lies like a large scale before the point above mentioned. 



Pectoral fin large, all its rays slender, the nine upper ones forked at the tips ; the 

 tenth simple, thicker and longer than the others, and projecting nearly one-fourth of its 

 length beyond the membrane ; the five inferior ones also simple, more slender, and 

 scarcely passing the membrane. Dorsal commencing over the pectorals, its spines firm 

 and acute, gradually shortening from the sixth, which is the longest, rendering the out- 

 line of that part of the fin arched. The soft part of the fin commences opposite to the 

 anus ; its first ray, which is soft and flexible at the tip, but does not appear to be 

 jointed, is equal in height to the last spine ; the second soft ray equals the fifth or 

 seventh spine, the others becoming gradually shorter, so that the edge of the fin is 

 straight, not arched ; the two posterior ones are short, and forked at the tips, all the 

 rest being nearly simple. Ventrals small, far back, opposite the eighth dorsal spine, 

 and midway between the anus and gill-opening. Anal having three short acute spines, 

 rather stouter than the dorsal ones. This fin does not extend so far back as the dorsal, 

 and its attachment occupies as much space as the distance between its last ray and the 

 caudal. The caudal is deeply and acutely forked ; its lobes equal. 



Anatomy. — The oesophagus is wide and short. The stomach descends from its car- 

 diac orifice, which is a little narrower than the oesophagus, in a nearly cyhndrical form, 

 terminating in an obtuse cone ; the pyloric branch, one quarter as long, goes off at a 

 right angle, leaves the obtusely conical cul de sac beneath it, and contracts gradually 

 towards the pylorus. Three very short conical caeca surround the gut immediately 

 below the pylorus, and a little further from it there is a fourth caecum, larger than the 

 others, and so placed as to appear hke a caecal head of the canal of the gut, the pyloric 

 branch of the stomach opening, as it were, into the side of the intestine. The gut 

 makes one complete convolution and then descends to the anus. The liver appeared 

 to be of small size, but was too much bruised to permit its form to be seen. Air- 



