122 MEMOIES OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



Silver-gray, darkest on the back and head, where there is a distinct 

 admixture of blue; body with 16 irregular brown bands, the first pair forming 

 the borders of an elongate ellipse between the occiput and the anterior dorsal 

 spines; the next 9 bands cross the head at different angles, the 5th, 6th, and 

 7th passing through the eye ; these bands unite on the occiput, forehead, and 

 snout, are as wide or a little wider than the interspaces, and being roughly 

 parallel to the first band and to one another, form ever-widening ellipses, 

 the continuity of which is only broken by the increasingly greater obliquity of 

 the bands from the front ; beyond the 7th band, which meets the dorsal ridge 

 below the 4th dorsal, the obliquity decreases; the last six bands originate on 

 the body, the anterior pair meeting the soft dorsal, the middle pair uniting 

 on the peduncular ridge, the last pair, which are horizontal, forked posteriorly, 

 the inner branches coalescing on the base of the caudal, the outer pair curved and 

 converging behind ; the bands which impinge upon the soft dorsal extend over 

 its scaly sheath, but with these two exceptions the fins are yellowish gray, as 

 also are the abdominal, thoracic, and mandibular regions. 



Etymology: — Latin: multus, many; vittatus, banded. 



Beg. No. in the Queensland Museum — I. 13/1506. 



Range: — Of this species three examples only are known to me — namely, 

 Macleay's two, from which his description was drawn up, and which were col- 

 lected for him by Spalding at Port Darwin, Northern Territory, and the present 

 specimen from Darnley Island. It is true that Kent includes it in his. 

 "Classified List of Queensland Food Fishes" (Great Barrier Reef, p. 369), 

 but this list is in every way so unsatisfactory that no reliance can be placed 

 upon it. 



How acquired: — Presented to the Queensland Museum by Dr. J. R. 

 Tosh. 



Remarks: — The differentiation of the banded Plectorliynchi is admittedly 

 difficult, and is not rendered easier to the student, who has but a limited series 

 on which to work, by the knowledge, as demonstrated by Bleeker, 1 that the 

 number of the body-bands and the ornamentation of the fins varies with the 

 age of the individual. Macleay considered his fish to be affine to Plectorliynchus 

 hcematochir 2 and P. polytcenia. 3 The latter may at once be dismissed, but its 

 relationship is very close to P. goldmani, i which was founded on an immature 

 fish, the adult of which was subsequently named P. hcematochir. 5 Our species, 



1 Atlas Ichth., viii, 1876, p. 14 et alibi. 



2 Nat. Tidjs. Nederl. Ind., vi, 1854, p. 175: Ternate. 



3 Ibid., iii, 1852, p. 755: Macassar. 



4 Ibid., iv, 1853, p. 602: Ternate (Goldmanni in errore; see ibid., vi, p. 175). 



"Jordan & Seale (Fishes of Samoa, No. 672) revert to this name, but as I cannot find 

 any mention of it prior to 1854 I adhere to the name adopted by Bleeker in the Atlas Ich- 

 thyologique. 



