120 MEMOIES. OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



central sj^ot, which increases in size and intensity towards the abdomen ; throat and 

 abdomen pale brown, uniform or with large bluish white blotches, which are irregular 

 in shape and position. Sides of head brown ; edge of upper lip, lower lip, and inter- 

 mandibular space livid white or, in the case of the latter, light brown. Unpaired fins 

 blackish, the tips of the posterior dorsal and anal rays and the outer half of the caudal 

 shading to lavender ; pectorals and outer half of ventrals gray. (Named after Dr. 

 Thomas Lang Bancroft, to whose researches in many branches of natural science 

 Queensland is miich indebted.) 



Described from 4 specimens, measuring between 205 and 260 millim., collected 

 by Dr. T. L. Bancroft in Eureka Creek, a feeder of the Walsh River (itself a tributary 

 of the Mitchell) in the Stannary Hills mining distiict of Xork Peninsula. One of these 

 belongs to the Amateur Fishermen's Association of Quefuisland, by which it was 

 kindly lent to us for comparison with the specimens in the State Museum. 



Our knowledge of this fish has been derived entirely from notes kindly com- 

 municated by Dr. Bancroft. He states that it is common in Eureka Creek and is 

 known in that district as the " Black Bream" ; that it grows to fully a pound and a 

 half in weight, is a strong and plucky fighter, and is of excellent quality as a table fish. 

 That it is also a fish of considerable cunning and quite competent to take care of itself 

 appears from the following extract : — " When fishing for it 1 have always noticed 

 that it is easy to catch the first fish, but that you wall hardly ever get another in the 

 same place. Directly you drop the bait in a deep rocky pool it is seized, and when 

 drawing up your struggling victim others of the school accompany it tc the surface. 

 After that none of the fishes in that pool will look at your bait, so you have just got to 

 move away to the next suitable spot." 



Illustration : — ^Taken from a fine example, 248 millim. long, now on exhibit in 

 the Queensland Museum. Reg. No. I. 15/2318. 



THERAPON TRIMACULATUS Macleay. 



(Plate XIII, fig. 1.) 



Therapon trimacnlatus Madeay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, viii, pt. 2, 17 July, 1883, p. 258. 



BANDED GRUNTER. 



Type locality : — Go! die River, B.N.G. 



D. xiii 11-13 ; A. iii 10-11 ; 46-50 series of scales between the origin of the 

 lateral line and the hypural joint counted below the lateral line, and 47-54 above it; 

 6|-7-| between the lateral line and the middle of the spinous dorsal. Cheek-scales in 

 6-7 rows. 



Depth 2-2-2-5 in the length to the hj^pural joint ; head 2-9 in the same. Eye 

 1-1-4 in the snout, and 3-7-4-6 in the head ; snout 2-8-3-7 in the head. Fifth dorsal 

 spine 2, second dorsal ray 1-5-1 -6, and second anal spine 2-6-2-8 in the head. 



Body deep, compressed. Snout obtusely pointed, the upper profile almost 

 straight to the nape where it is convex ; interorbital space almost flat, the bony ridges 

 of the upper surface of the head but feebly developed. Jaws equal. Maxillarj^ reaching 

 back to behind the vertical of the posterior nostril, or to below the anterior portion of 

 the eye ; its posterior portion exposed. Eyes not very large, equal to the snout in 

 young specimens, smaller in adults ; the interorbital width is slightly less than the 

 length of the snout. Nostrils well separated, the anterior small and tubular, the 

 other larger. Preorbital entire or with some small teeth posteriorly. Operculum with 



