Sir J. Richardson on Australian Fish. 285 



dacfyH. The head forms a fourth of the total length. The height 

 of the body is also equal to a fourth of the length of the fish caudal 

 included. The belly is prominent, and the tail, posterior to the ver- 

 tical fins, is slender. The lateral line is straight, and each of its scales 

 is marked by a short straight tube, which is placed somewhat obhquely 

 to the general direction of the hne. About fifty-two scales compose 

 a row between the gill-opening and caudal, the base of whose rays are 

 also scaly, and the lateral line is prolonged as far as the scales extend 



on that fin. 



The dorsal commences over the upper angle of the gdl-opemng and 

 reaches to within an inch of the caudal. Its seventh spine, which is 

 the tallest, is nearly equal to half the height of the body ; the others 

 are graduated very shghtly posteriorly and more rapidly anteriorly. 

 None of them are stout, and all of them are traversed on each side 

 by a deep furrow. The membrane between thon is deeply notched, 

 as in the genus Pelors, and a slender process running up the back of 

 each spine surmounts it in form of a small free lobe. The soft rays 

 surpass the tallest spine a httle, and are more than twice the height 

 of the last one. The anal commences opposite to the beginning of 

 the soft portion of the dorsal and ends beneath its tenth branched 

 ray, or, in the specimens before us, about two inches and a half from 

 the caudal. The spines are like the dorsal ones, grooved and slender, 

 and the second one, which is scarcely shorter than the third, is not 

 quite twice as long as the first one. The seven inferior simple rays 

 of the pectoral have free tips, their membrane being deeply notched 

 as in the dorsal. The ventrals are attached under the middle of the 

 pectorals, or opposite to the sixth dorsal spme. Their spine is slen- 

 der, and about two-thirds of the length of the soft rays. The caudal 

 is rounded, with the tips of the rays projecting beyond the mem- 

 brane. 



Threpteritjs maculosus, Richardson. 



This fish approaches the division Latris of the Cheilodactyli in the 

 form of its pectoral fin and other characters, but differs so much in 

 its o-eneral aspect, which reminds one of a cottoid fish, that it is well 

 that we can find a structural diiference which enables us to place it 

 in a separate genus. This exists in the vomerine teeth, the vomer 

 being smooth in the Cheilodactyli, but in this fish it is armed like 

 the jaws by a single row of teeth, which, instead of being setiform 

 and crowded, as in the Cheilodactyli, are short, somewhat conical, 

 and confined nearly to a single row on the jaws as well as on the 



vomer. 



The native name of the fish at King George's Sound is "Ciim- 

 beiik," and it frequents rocky places, having apparently the same 

 habits with the Cheilodactyli. The simple projecting rays of the 

 pectoral would appear to perform the fnnctions of an organ of touch, 

 and are furnished to many fish that, hke the Triglce, swim close to 

 the sandy bottom, which they touch with these simple rays, whether 

 they are wholly or partially free. The Cumbeuk is prized as an 

 article of food, whence the generic name. 



