AUSTRALIAN GOBIID^ — McCULLOCH AND OGILBT. 275 



hidden in the scales ; some large open pores on the snout, interorbital 

 space, nuchal groove, and preopercular margin. Eye of moderate size, the 

 interorbital space broad and flat. Snout obtuse, the mandible projecting ; 

 no barbies. Each jaw with a band of villiform teeth, and an outer row 

 of stronger ones. Tongue, broad, subtruiicate, and free anteriorly. Gill- 

 openings wide, extending well forward below, the space between them 

 either narrow or of moderate width ; exposed edge of the shoulder-girdle 

 forming a smooth carved ridge. Pseudobranchiae present ; anterior 

 gill-rakers of the first arch broad and short, about nine on the lower limb. 

 Dorsal and anal fins short, with six spines and about nine rays. Pectoral 

 and caudal rounded ; ventrals i/5, widely separated.. 



Key to the Australian species. 



a. Preopercular margin hidden by the scales ; supraciliary scales present. 



b. About 30 scales between the axil and the hypural joint aporos. 



aa. Preopercular margins exposed and free ; no siTpraciliary scales. 



c. About 37 scales between the axil and the hypural joint darwiniensis. 



Ophiocara aporos, Bleelcer. 



Eleotris aporos, Bleeker, Nat. Tijd. Ned. Ind., vi., 1854, p. 59. Id., 

 Giinther, Brit. Mus. Cat. Fish., iii., 1861, p. 109. Id., Kner, Reise 

 " Novara", Zoo!., i., Fisch. 2, 1865, p. 183. Id., Giinther, Ann. Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. (3), xx., 1867, p. 62. Id., Macleay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. 

 Wales, v., 1881, p. 616. 



Eleotris aporns, Bleeker, Nederl. Tijd. Dierk., ii., 1865, p. 293. Id., Weber, 

 Nova Guinea, v., 1907, p. 252. 



Ophiocara aporns, Bleeker, Versl. Akad. Anist. (2), xi., 1877, p. 33. 



? Eleotris porocephaloides, Klunzinger, Sitzb. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Ixxx. i., 

 1879, p. 384 (not of Bleeker). 



Eleotris planiceps, Macleay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.Wales, viii., 1883, p. 206 

 (not of Castelnau, 1878, nor of Macleay, 1882). 



Eleotris aporocephalus, Macleay, Ibid., ix., 1884, p. 33 — substitute name. 



Ophiocara apuvos, Jordan & Seale, Bull. U.S. Fish. Bureau, xxv., 1906, p. 

 384. Id., Jordan & Richardson, Bull. U.S. Fish. Bureau, xxvii., 

 1908, p. 274. 



D. vi/9 ; A. 10 ; P. 14 ; V. i/5 ; C. 15. 29 rows of scales between 

 the axil and the hypural joint, and 10 between the anterior dorsal and 

 anal rays. 



Depth before the ventrals about 5 in the length from the premaxillary 

 symphysis to the hypural joint ; head, without the mandible, 3"2 in the 

 same. Eye 7"1 in the head, and 3 in the interocular space ; it is much 

 shorter than the snout. Breadth before the pectoral bases about equal to 

 the depth ; the depth of the caudal peduncle is to its length as 2 is to 3. 



Head broader than deep, flat above, and almost entirely covered with 

 large cycloid scales ; these extend forward almost to the level of the 

 anterior nostrils on the upper surface, and those on the nape have crenulate 



