DR. RICHARDSON'S DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIAN FISH. 175 



tasmanius in form, and the tail so much shorter in proportion, that I cannot venture 

 to refer them both to the same species. Their habitats are remote from each other, 

 C. smythii having been taken at Valparaiso. 



A single male specimen of C. tasmanius was contained in Mr. Lempriere's first col- 

 lection, and recently I have received from him a female one, preserved in brine. The 

 stomachs contained bivalve shells and barnacles much broken down. 



Form closely resembling that of antarcticus. The snout is much compressed, and 

 has a thin depending hoe-shaped appendage. Dental plates, four in the upper jaw and 

 two below, with even edges. Exterior lips prominent, enclosing the mouth and nostrils, 

 meeting at the bridle which separates the nasal orifices, and spreading out at the angles 

 of the mouth, where they are curiously folded, then becoming thicker to form the lower 

 lip, which is equally broad, and appears to be finely villous, as do also the parts about 

 the nostrils, when the mucus which lines them is scraped away. The club-shaped 

 appendage on the head is armed at the end and beneath with small, somewhat curved 

 spines. It is received into a groove whose anterior margin is also rough with spines. 

 The large oval eye is placed near the forehead, but does not trench on its profile. Two 

 raised lines of pores run on each side of the snout, near its margin, separating as they 

 proceed backwards, so that one passes over and the other under the orbit, behind which 

 they are joined to one another, and also to their fellows on the opposite side of the 

 head, by a transverse line which makes a backward loop on the nape. Three branches 

 spring from the lower Une, one of them stretching forwards to the side of the snout ; 

 another dipping directly to the angle of the mouth, and the third going obUquely 

 backwards to the gill-openings, before which, on the throat, it forms a junction with its 

 fellow of the opposite side. There are three conspicuous pores closely adjoining each of 

 the three anterior lines on the cheek, also nine or ten above the orbit. The lateral line 

 commencing at the angle of junction of those lines which pass over and under the orbit, 

 and running nearer to the back than to the belly, exhibits many small undulations in 

 its course, with two or three more remarkable ones before the ventrals. When it 

 arrives over the first under caudal, it crosses the tail obliquely, and a little behind the 

 beginning of the second caudal, it makes a more sudden curve, and keeps close to the 

 bases of the rays of that fin up to the tip of the tail. The branchial opening is a single 

 orifice at the base of each pectoral, and is bound to its fellow of the opposite side by a 

 fold of skin which crosses the hyoidal isthmus. 



The dorsal spine is articulated to a large winged process of the first vertebra, which 

 rises higher than the adjoining occipital crest. The spine is very strong, being fully 

 half an inch broad below. It is compressed with an acute curved edge anteriorly, a 

 straight grooved back posteriorly, and tapers at the summit into a cylindrical rather 

 obtuse point. Except the tip which appears worn, it is entirely covered with membrane, 

 and shows no vestiges whatever of the serratures behind the point represented in 

 Guerin's figure of antarcticus, or in that of C. smythii in the zoology of Beechey's 



