96 MEMOIRS OF TEE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



however, followed Valenciennes in upholding the validity of T. oblongus, and 

 the latter even went so far as to unite T. russellii with T. bailloni, even though 

 years previously Valenciennes had correctly pointed out the distinctive characters 

 of each species. This mistake of Giinther was destined to cause much confusion 

 among the earlier Australian ichthyologists and has indeed only been finally 

 interred within the last few years, even though Day in 1876 had fully exposed 

 the error and vindicated the claims of the two forms to specific separation. In 

 1886, shortly after our arrival in New South Wales and before we had had an 

 opportunity of examining the species, we followed Macleay in cataloguing 

 T. bailloni as a Port Jackson fish, but at the same time emphasized our dissent 

 from the Giintherian dictum by omitting T. russellii from the synonymy of that 

 species. Seven years later, however, having in the interim handled many 

 specimens we for the first time established the presence of T. russellii in 

 Australian waters. Meanwhile Giinther, having obtained from the Coast of 

 Queensland a six inches specimen from which the usual spots were absent, 

 described it as new under the name T. coppingeri, dedicating it to Staff-Surgeon 

 R. W. Coppinger of H.M.S. ' ' Alert, ' ' then on survey duty off the Australian Coast, 

 who was responsible for its collection. A comparison of our respective descrip- 

 tions, after setting aside as negligible the presence or absence of lateral spots, 

 fails to reveal any structural differences, save the slightly greater depth and the 

 much smaller eye; the latter character, if correctly stated, is the more extra- 

 ordinary as Giinther 's specimen was young, and we are inclined to think that 

 the artist, whose delineation of the outside eye makes it 4 (not 4-5) in the length 

 of the head, is more correct than the describer ; in a six inches specimen now 

 before us the measurements are as 1 to 3-5. T. coppingeri may, therefore, be 

 definitely included in the synonymy of T. botla. In 1904 we were disagreeably 

 astonished to find that "Waite had reinstated T. bailloni as a New South Wales 

 species to the exclusion of T. botla; it was doubtless due to this that Stead two 

 years later included T. bailloni in his catalogue of the Edible Fishes of Australia, 

 but in his next publication he corrected his error and reverted to T. russellii as 

 the New South Wales representative. We take this opportunity of affirming 

 that there is no authentic record of the occurrence of T. bailloni on the coast of 

 the southern State. With regard to our T. velox, after handling many specimens 

 from Moreton Bay and its neighbourhood, we have come to the conclusion that 

 the species was erroneously formed on an unusually vigorous individual, the 

 virility of which chiefly revealed itself in the increased number of the dorsal and 

 anal fin-rays and the extraordinary length of the soft dorsal, caudal, and anal 

 lobes. How greatly these differences altered the habit of the individual the 

 following table, comparing T. velox with an average specimen of about the same 

 size will show, the second set of figures belonging to the spurious T. velox. 

 " Length of body in millimeters from tip of snout to end of hypural bone 

 240, 225 ; number of soft rays in the anal 22, 26 ; length of dorsal lobe to that 



