48 MEMOISS OF THE QVEKNSLANT) MrSEUM. 



Ocliraceous, with four broad, transverse, purple bands. Head with 

 scattered blue spots. All the fins, except the pectorals, which are uniform lemon- 

 yellow, broadly tipped with violet ; dorsal and anal sometimes with a few blue 

 spots basally. (Named after Dr. Pieter Bleeker, the celebrated Dutch 

 ichthyologist.) 



Described from two Port Jackson examples, measuring respectively 1S2 

 and 233 mm., acquired by exchange from the Australian JIuseum, Sydney. Eeg. 

 No. I. 2858, 3116. 



Distribution: — The imquestionable recorded range of this species is small, 

 being restricted to the south-eastern corner of the mainland between Ilobson's 

 Bay and Port Jackson. The earliest notice of its occurrence was made by Dr. 

 Giinther who, after describing it, remarked that — "The locality in which this 

 splendid species is found is \inknown : I conclude, however, from its general 

 appearance that it belonged originally to a collection made at the Norfolk 

 Islands." Subsequently he figured it among the fishes of the South Seas, but 

 with the statement that it had not come under the notice of Garrett. Nothing, 

 however, has further transpired to give warrant for any such assumption. To 

 Castelnau belongs the honor of first providing this species with "a local 

 habitation and a name" (vernacular), he having recorded, under the title 

 Riippdia prolon(jata, a large example obtained presumably in the Melbourne 

 JNIarket, where it was sufficiently well known to have earned for itself tlie local 

 name of "devil fish," though it is difficult to understand why so harndcss and 

 handsome a fish should be weighted with so opprobious a title.* Subsequently the 

 same author noted the occurrence of the species in Port Jackson, and a few years 

 later the writer was fortunate enough to catch a fine specimen in Port Hacking, 

 as noted in his New South Wales Catalogue. So far as I can ascertain these three 

 ai'c the only localities from which the species has been directly recorded. Stead's 

 remark, that ""it is not uncommon in the vicinity of reefs and rocky localities 

 generally along our {i.e. New South Wales) coastline," induces the belief that its 

 range is not so restricted as would ajjpear from the foregoing. Castelnau further 

 jiuhlished ■■ under li. protomjata a notice of a fish forwarded to him from 



' In his various notices of this fish Castelnau has got himself into a somewhat hopeless 

 tangle by confusing under the same name two totally distinct species. Karly in 1873 he wrote 

 — "It forms a new genus (Bleeckeria) , characterised by the soft ])art of its dorsal and of the 

 anal being considerably prolongated, and its ventrales formed of one spine and only three rays. 

 This species (calafracta) is over a foot long and is covered witli rather large scales." Later in 

 the same year he again wrote — ' ' In my ]'a| or on the Edible Fislips of Victoria, in the Exhibition 

 fissays, 1S7.S, I stated by a lapsu-i calami that this fish was my Blcchcria catafracta {Lace- 

 jicdia)." This latter assignment of the name was not imblishcd until some mouths after the 

 issue of the earlier ])aper, so that it would seem that, if Hlecckcria catafracta was, as a name, 

 of any scientific value, it would have to be listeil as a synonym of raraplesiopa blechcri, not of 

 I.aci pcdia catafracta, which is possibly a latrididid fish. Fortunately, however, Bteeckcria is 

 anteiiatcd by lilcckcria Oiinther, an ammodytidoid fish from the East Indian Seas. (See Brit. 

 Mus. Catal. Fish., iv, 1862, p. 387.) 



'' Kcs. Fish. Austr., 1875, p. 29. 



