AUSTRALIAN GOIIIID^ McCDLLOCH AND OGILBY. 241 



Described from one of the thi-ee cotypes of Gohiiis scabi-iceps, Mac- 

 leay, 30 nini. long ; this diifers from its brief description in having the 

 diameter of the eye two thirds as wide as the interocular space instead of 

 less than one half. The accompanying figure represents a smaller speci- 

 men, 23| mm. long, from Masthead Island, which differs principally in 

 having the head lighter in colour than the body, and covered with only 

 papilla3 instead of filaments. 



Variation. — A careful comparison of sixty-two specimens, 12-34 mm. 

 long, indicates that this species is highly variable in its colouration, but 

 that such variations do not represent even subspecific characters. (A) 

 Five examples from Masthead Island have the body and fins brownish- 

 black with the head flesh-coloured. (B) Four others from Green Island 

 are more nearly uniform brown, the body being lighter and the head not 

 so pale. (C) Of five small specimens from Murray Island, one is like A; 

 the others have all the fins except the ventrals blackish, while the head 

 and body is flesh-coloured ; four others from Masthead Island are simi- 

 larly coloured. (D) Four specimens from German New Guinea are each 

 differently coloured, and are somewhat intermediate between forms C 

 and E. (E) Thirty-six from Masthead Island and three from Murray 

 Island are light coloured all over, grass-green in life, with the margin of 

 the caudal dark and usually of the dorsal and anal also. 



The filaments on the head are more papillose in the small dark 

 coloured examples than in the lighter ones of similar size, in which they 

 are setiform, and they are less abundant on the nape; this feature is 

 variable however, and offers no specific character. In younger specimens 

 also, the scales near the dorsal and anal fins are imperfectly developed, so 

 that they appear less numerous in a transverse series than in adults. 



Synonymy. — The variability of this species has caused writers to 

 bestow several names upon it. Gohius amicievsis, Cuvier and Valen- 

 ciennes, was reduced to the synonymy of G. echinocephalns by Klunzin- 

 ger, who has been followed by later authors. G. xanthosoma, Bleeker, 

 and G. vielanosoma, Bleeker, are also identical with G. echinocephalus 

 according to Weber, (t. gobiodon, Day, was relegated to the synonymy 

 of G. melauosoma by its author, while G. tvaitii, Garman, is evidently 

 another synonoym, as suggested by Jordan and Seale under G. .vantliosoma. 

 Finally, we have compared the types of G. gihhosns, Macleay, and G. scah- 

 riceps, Macleay from the Endeavour River, and find them identical in 

 all details, and evidently synonymous with G. echinoceplialus. 



Localities of specimens examined. — Masthead Island off Port Curtis, 

 and Green Island off Cairns, Queensland ; coll. McCulloch. Endeavour 

 River, Queensland ; types of G. gihhosns and G. scahrireps. Murray Island, 

 Torres Strait; coll. Hedley and McCulloch. German New Guinea, Duke 

 of York Island, and Bougainville Island. 



Genus ZoNOGOBiDS, Bleeker. 



Zonogohins (Bleeker), Jordan & Seale, Bull. U.S. Fish. Bureau, xxv., 1906, 

 p. 397. 



