ICHTEYOLOGICAL ITEMS.— McCULLOCH. 61 



Scales ctenoid above and below, and extending onto the fin-rays. Head 

 closely scaly above, without cirri ; lower surface with many minute cirri projecting 

 from between the scales, while the margin of the gill-opening is closely fringed with 

 them. Eyes rather large, without any scaly interorbital space ; the upper is in 

 advance of the lower. Upper anterior nostril forming a short, simple tube, the 

 posterior in a minute tube directly before the eye ; lower anterior nostril with a low 

 skinny border, placed above the middle of the lip, the posterior in a tube beneath 

 the hinder portion of the upper eye. Teeth minute, apparently present on the blind 

 side onl3^ Mouth opening backward to below the anterior third of the eye ; lower 

 lip not fringed. Gill-membranes with skinny flaps which unite with the rudimentary 

 pectorals to form broad tubular openings. 



Dorsal fin commencing a little before the middle of the eye ; the rays increase 

 regularly in length backwards, and their tips are bifurcate and project slightly beyond 

 the membrane. Anal of similar form to the dorsal. Caudal rounded. Ventrals 

 opposite each other, and free from the anal ; they each have four rays, of which the 

 second is longest, but the left ventral is only half as large as the right. Pectorals 

 rudimentary, of equal size, the longest ray about half as long as the eye ; they are 

 united A\ath the gill-membranes as described above. Lateral line straight from the 

 back of the head to the median caudal rays ; on the upper side it curves upward and 

 forward to the front margin of the head. 



Colour. — ^Light brown above with fifteen cross-bars on the head and tail ; 

 the first is broad and largely covers the snout ; second and third narrow, the former 

 passing through the eyes and the latter across the operculum ; the remainder increase 

 in width backwards and are about as wide as the interspaces. Dorsal, anal, and 

 caudal each with a white margin, followed by an interrupted black submarginal 

 band ; the cross-bars of the body are also continued onto the fins. Bhnd side 

 colourless. 



Described and figured from a specimen 193 mm. long. Five others exhibit 

 some variation in their colour-marking ; the cross-bands vary in number up to nine- 

 teen, and some may be interrupted and irregular ; in some specimens the white margins 

 of the fins are very narrow. The dorsal rays vary from 71-81, and the anal 64-70, 

 while there are from 112-130 scales on the lateral fine. 



IjOC. — Neighbourhood of Fre mantle. Western AustraHa. 



SYNAPTURA FASCIATA, Macleay. 



MANY-BANDED SOLE. 



(Plate VIII., fig. 2.) 



Synaptura fasciata, Macleay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, vii., 1882, p. 14. Id., Waite, Mem. 

 Austr. Mus., iv., 1, 1899, p. 126, pi. xxxi. 



D. 75-87 ; A. 65-74 ; C. 15-16 ; V. 4. L. lat. 92-96 ; L. tr. 27/1/36. Greatest 

 depth 2-5 in the length from the snout to the hypural ; head about 6 in the same. 

 Eye about 4, posterior dorsal and anal rays 1-5, longest ventral ray 3-2, and caudal 

 fin 1-2 in the head. 



Scales ctenoid above and below, and extending onto the fin-rays. Head closely 

 scaly above with a few cirri on the anterior portion, and many on both its dorsal and 

 ventral profiles, and on the margin of the giU-opening ; lower surface of head closely 

 covered with cirri which leave only the middle of the operculum bare (in spirit- 

 specimens the cirri are much shrunken, and not easily detected). Eyes of moderate 



