EDIBLE FISHES OF QUEENSLAND.— OGILBY. 81 



gill-fringes. Vent well forward, midway between the origin of the ventrals 

 and the 2nd free anal spine. 



Back and upper sides dark blue, with six broad faint cross-bands, which 

 disappear with age, shading down the lower sides to the silver of the throat 

 and abdomen ; cranio-nuchal ridge black ; a diffused brown spot behind the eye ; 

 snout, edge of mandible, and chin violet. Dorsal filament and inner rays of 

 ventrals black, the outer ray and the tip white, (aurochs, the European Bison; 

 in allusion to its bluff head.) 



Described from two specimens, measuring respectively 157 and 167 millim., 

 of which the former was taken off Pine Peak, M.Q., on August 1, 1910, at a depth 

 of 25 fath., and the latter at one or other of the localities referred to below on 

 the coasts of South and Middle Queensland. Two other examples are in the 

 Queensland Museum (O.C.) without locality and in such bad condition as to 

 be valueless for descriptive purposes ; they were labelled Caranx armatus. 



Reg. No. of type in the Queensland Museum — I. 14/2218. 



Range: — Coasts of South and Middle Queensland, apparently widely 

 distributed but nowhere abundant, at least during the winter months. The 

 localities noted during the investigations carried out on our coast by the F.I.S. 

 " Endeavour " were — Hervey and Bustard Bays, S.Q., 1 example each; Pine 

 Peak and Edgecumbe Bay, M.Q., 4 and 10 examples respectively. All these 

 fishes were taken on a sandy or muddy bottom at a depth varying from 15 to 

 25 fathoms. It will be remarked from the above that the number of specimens 

 increased steadily from south to north, and we may, therefore,, fairly assume 

 that it is an inhabitant of the entire Eastern Coast of Queensland, more 

 especially the northern section. 



Dimensions: — Attains a length of at least 175 millim. 



Remarks: — This species has been confounded with the Caranx armatus 

 of Giinther's Catalogue, but that author's description is unreliable, having 

 manifestly been drawn up from two or more species. We may, however, point 

 out that in the Queensland species the shape of the lateral line and the number and 

 strength of its scutes are very different from those of the western fish ; the snout 

 also is much shorter than the eye in our fish and the maxillary correspondingly 

 extends further backward, while in the eighteen examples, which we have seen, 

 none of the middle dorsal rays were produced, a character which, according to 

 Gunther, effectually separates it from C. atropus ; Day 's C. atropus does not, how- 

 ever, seem to be the same as Giinther's, but ours may be at once distinguished by 

 the shorter ventrals and narrower maxillary. It is also different from C. armatus 

 Day, with an Indian example of which McCulloch has kindly compared it, and 

 writes " the profile is different and the lateral line differently curved." Re- 

 ferring to Caranx altissimus Jordan and Seale 27 he writes — " Also very near 

 C. altissimus, but it has a narrower preorbital and the lateral is different. ' ' 



27 Proc. Davenport Acad., x, 1905, p. 7, pi. iii. 



