140 DR. RICHARDSON'S DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIAN FISH. 



restricted. The integuments of the head are less spongy and porous than in the two 

 preceding species. There are eleven teeth on each side of each jaw, with a tolerably 

 strong canine tooth at the angles of the mouth. The inner row of teeth is about as 

 numerous as the outer one. The pectoral and caudal fins are much rounded. The 

 spinous part of the dorsal is very even, its rays being all equal in length, except the 

 first one, which is a little shorter. The soft part is higher and very slightly arched, as 

 is also the anal. The ventrals are much pointed, the tapering point being formed by 

 the first and second soft rays ; their membranes, and those of the pectorals, are delicate 

 and transparent. The scales have equally thin membranous edges with the preceding 

 species, but are rather more rounded and less rhomboidal in outline, and they show 

 their streaks more strongly in the dried specimen, giving it at first sight the appearance 

 of having toothed or fringed scales. The lateral line contains twenty-six scales, ex- 

 clusive of two rows without tubular elevations on the base of the caudal, and the short 

 tongues of small scales between the rays. It curves, as in the preceding species, to the 

 full depth of one scale at the end of the dorsal. The tubular elevations of each scale 

 have a compact arbuscular form, being thrice bifurcated. 



A drawing made by a convict under Dr. Lhotsky's inspection at Port Arthur, and 

 undoubtedly relating to this species, presents the following colours. Ground colour of 

 the back, sides, and head, deep duck-green. A lake-red stripe commencing at the 

 supra-scapular, and another beginning above the base of the pectorals, run parallel to 

 the back, and unite opposite to the end of the dorsal into a single broader stripe, which is 

 continued through the middle of the tail and dorsal. A stripe of the same colour runs 

 from the under caudal rays on each side of the anal fin to the belly and breast, where 

 it spreads out more broadly. All these stripes are bounded by Berlin-blue lines, com- 

 posed of a series of streaks, one on each scale. Many lake-red lines radiate on all sides 

 from the orbit, over a blue ground on the cheek, and green on the rest of the head. 

 There are also some anastomosing and longitudinal red lines on the interopercular and 

 lower jaw. The pectorals and ventrals are carmine red, the dorsal purplish red, with 

 many small round blue spots between the summits of the rays, and then a bordering 

 fillet of vermilion edged with blue. The anal has along the base a narrow stripe of 

 vermilion, then a broad one of primrose yellow, edged above and below with blue, and 

 lastly a band of purple as broad as the yellow one, spotted thickly with blue and edged 

 with the same. The caudal is plum-purple, beautifully spotted at the end with round 

 blue dots. 



Our two specimens, though long kept in spirits, still show most of these markings, 

 but they differ from the drawing in the streaks radiating from the eye, viz. two crossing 

 the anterior suborbitar, three descending over the cheek, and two passing to the nape, 

 besides some undulating lines on the interoperculum which are blue, not red ; and in 

 there being five rows of short plum-blue lines on each side beneath the pectorals, not 

 shown in the drawing, and three such lines on each side of the anal. The drawing 



