EDIBLE FISHES OF QUEENSLAND.— OGILBY. 91 



Gill-rakers moderately long and slender, 14 or 15 on the lower branch of 

 the anterior arch, the longest 5-75 to 7-5 in the length of the head. Vent about 

 midway between the origins of the ventrals and anal. 



Silvery, the upper surface washed with blue, the sides and lower surface 

 iridescent ; young with six or seven darker bands about as wide as the interspace ; 

 these are sometimes directed obliquely forward, but more usually the body-bands 

 are vertical leaving the orbito-nuchal band oblique ; this latter is persistent in 

 the adult as a more or less defined supraciliary blotch ; none of the bands descend 

 to the abdominal or thoracic regions, though posteriorly some may approach the- 

 anal. A large dark suffused spot on the opercle ; tip of mandible dusky. Fila- 

 mentous dorsal and anal rays and the ventrals black in the young, yellow in the 

 adult, the black persistent as a basal spot, which is generally present on the 

 dorsal, more rarely on the anal; rest of the fins yellowish gray, the caudal with 

 a brownish tinge, in the young black-edged, (ciliaris, furnished with cilia; in 

 allusion to the hair-like rays of the dorsal and anal fins.) 



Described from three Moreton Bay examples, measuring respectively 

 99, 114, and 247 millim., the smallest and the largest being in the collection of 

 the Amateur Fishermen's Association, by whom they were kindly lent to us for 

 the purpose of this work ; the third is in the Queensland Museum. 



Historical: — Being unable to consult the works of the early Dutch 

 naturalists, we have been compelled to trust to Valenciennes for the establishment 

 of the identity of all their figures with Alectis inclica; but the fact that the 

 species, of which we are now treating, is also widely distributed throughout the 

 Indo-Malayan Archipelago suggests that some confusion may have occurred 

 among them, as we have shown to be the case with those who came after 

 them. Indeed Valenciennes' own treatment of the subject does not invite much 

 confidence in his dealings with that of others. Bonnaterre's figure shows well 

 the distinctive characters which separate this fish from its congener, but the 

 same can not be said of Russell's in whose drawings they are inextricably mixed. 

 In 1826 Dr. Samuel Mitchill 6 of New York described as Zeus crinitus a small 

 fish which had been washed ashore on Block Island in the North-West Atlantic. 

 This fish has been generally referred by recent writers to the synonymy of 

 A. ciliaris, but this view was not held by Gunther or Lutken. Riippell's figure 

 of Blepharis fasciatus is said by Jordan and Richardson 7 to be " well dis- 

 tinguished " from that of his Scyris inclicus, but these authors are at variance 

 with Gunther as to which figure represents B. fasciatus (i.e. A. ciliaris). 

 Valenciennes described this species by no less than four names — Blepharis 



6 Gunther refers this fish to the synonymy of Caraim sutor, giving the reference as. 

 Z. crinitus Akerly. There are two errors here; firstly the fish was described by Mitchill, 

 Akerly being merely the artist who drew Mitchill 's plate, and secondly Z. crinitus antedating 

 Blepharis sutor by seven years, the position of the names should have been reversed. 



7 Bull. TJ. S. Bur. Fish., xxvii, p. 251. 



