142 DR. RICHARDSON'S DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIAN FISH. 



The specimen to which we have given this specific name, has in spirits an uniform 

 hyacinth-red colour, but without any other indications of peculiar markings than five 

 or six rows of honey-yellow spots on the soft dorsal and anal, and a few streaks on the 

 naked part of the cheek near the angle of the mouth. The pectorals and ventrals are 

 transparent, and show no indications of spots. The dorsal spines increase gradually in 

 length. from the first to the ninth, which is a third longer. The first soft ray is higher 

 than the adjoining spine and its membranous tip ; the other articulated rays increase 

 successively to the tenth, which is the longest. In the anal, on the contrary, all the 

 articulated rays are nearly of one length, or of the same height with the middle of the 

 soft dorsal. The anal and dorsal terminate opposite each other as in L. laticlavius, 

 while in tetricus and fucicola the anal is more remote from the caudal than the dorsal. 

 The pectoral is cut away posteriorly by a sloping line, so that the second ray is the 

 longest. The caudal is even at the end, with the exception of the greatly branching 

 extremities of the second and third upper rays, which form a short projecting tip. The 

 left ventral in our specimen has only four articulated rays, the other one has five, as 

 usual. 



Tlie gill-cover is shaped much as in L. laticlavius, but the membranous lobe is smaller. 

 The scales of the operculum are equally large, yet more numerous and more tiled : 

 rather more of the suboperculum is naked, as is also the whole of the broad interoper- 

 culum. The cheek is much more scaly, there being four rows beneath the eye, three 

 higher up and two behind the eye. They approach close to the ridge of the pre- 

 operculum, and extend as far forward as the centre of the eye, leaving a naked space of 

 the breadth of two scales between them and the margin of the orbit. 



The form of this fish is a pretty regular oval, and the body is more compressed than 

 is usual in a Labrus. The length of the head is equal to fully one-fourth of the total 

 length including caudal, and the greatest depth of the body is a little more. The jaws 

 are narrower and longer, and the intermaxillaries more protractile than in any of the 

 preceding species. There are twelve or thirteen teeth on each side of each jaw in the 

 outer row, besides the curved canine tooth at the angle of the mouth, all small except 

 the pair at the symphysis and the canine tooth. The inner row is conspicuous enough 

 anteriorly in both jaws, but does not extend backwards beyond the sixth tooth of the 

 outer row. The scales, thin and flexible, have rather narrower membranous borders, 

 and a more rhomboidal form than in the preceding species. The lateral line containing 

 twenty-six scales, curves at the nineteenth, opposite the end of the dorsal, to be continued 

 straight through the centre of the tail. There is one large scale beyond on the base of 

 the caudal on which the tubular ramifications do not exist, making twenty-seven in all, 

 and small scaly tongues between the rays. The tubular divisions are less numerous than 

 in L. laticlavius, the ultimate branchlets seldom exceeding eight or nine in number in the 

 anterior scales, or half that number on the tail, nor are they perforated by numerous 

 pores as in the species just named. 



