DR. RICHARDSON'S DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIAN FISH. 155 



moderately strong, but not muscular, the pylorus is contracted, the canal of the intestine 

 narrow, its coats delicate, and the rectum, which is about two inches long, is but slightly 

 dilated. The beginning of the intestine is surrounded by about thirty long, slender 

 pyloric caeca, grouped in four bundles. The intestines contained fragments of shells 

 and Crustacea, and the stomach was filled by a firm fleshy animal shaped like a leech. 

 The air-bladder was destroyed, if one had actually existed. The vertebrae consist of 

 fourteen abdominal and fifty-three caudal ones. The spinous process of the second 

 vertebra is longer than that of either the first or third : the succeeding processes increase 

 in length and become more slender : the third caudal spinous process equals the second 

 abdominal one, the rest decrease successively in length and incline more and more, so 

 as to become nearly parallel to the body of the vertebra. The transverse processes of the 

 first caudal vertebra unite into a nearly circular or widely oval hoop ; the diameter of the 

 hoop rapidly diminishes in the three following vertebrae, and the canal formed by the 

 remainder is acutely triangular and narrow. There is an elevated acute ridge on the 

 orbitar plate of the frontal bone, crossing it obliquely and running backwards to join the 

 posterior intermediate ridge of the cranium. Near the middle of the orbital plate the 

 ridge is perforated by a large foramen. The pedicles of the intermaxillaries are longer 

 by one-third than the dental surface, and they move under a vaulted space covered by 

 the interior or mesial plates of the greatly developed nasal bones. The ascending plate 

 of each nasal bone, applied to its fellow, forms an elevated ridge whose anterior corner 

 is the extremity of the snout ; while the expanding lateral plate or wing has a scabrous 

 or cancellated anterior tip which supports the snout laterally. The first suborbitar is 

 very large, and, like the four succeeding ones which are successively smaller, has its 

 edge reverted to form a broad cancellated surface which sustains the cheek. There is 

 also a triangular cancellated surface elevated in the middle of the preoperculum, and 

 the under margin of it and of the suborbitar plates corresponds to the acute line or 

 ridge which has been described as running backwards from the apex of the snout and 

 forming the under boundary of the flat side of the head. 



Dimensions. 



In. Lin. 



Length from point of snout to tip of tail 170 



Length from point of snout to anus 5 3 



Length from point of snout to end of first dorsal 5 



Length from point of snout to commencement of dorsal 4 2 



Length from point of snout to tip of upper lobe or gill-cover 3 5 



Length from point of snout to posterior edge of orbit 2 2 



Length from point of snout to anterior edge of orbit 11 



Length from point of snout to intermaxillary symphysis (jaw retracted) . 1 



Length of long diameter of orbit 11 



Length of vertical diameter of orbit 9^ 



