156 MEMOIIIS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



origiiiatina: below the 7th dorsal ray ; 2nd spine longest, 1-85 to 1-55 in the eye- 

 diameter fanal lobe lower than that of the soft dorsal, 2-7 to 3-8 in the body- 

 length, and extending when depressed to between the middle of the peduncle 

 and the base of the ISth ray. Pectoral pointed, wath 19 rays, its length 4-25 

 to 4-67 in that of the body ; 5th ray longest, reaching in the young to above the 

 1st anal spine, in the adult to above the vent. Ventral moderate, inserted 

 well behind the pectoral, its length 1-4 to 2-15 in that of the pectoral and 6 

 to 10 in the body-length; outer ray longest, extending somewhat beyond or 

 to the vent. 



Gill-rakers short, 6 -f- 9 on the anterior arch, the longest 9-5 to 16 in the 

 length of the head. Vent about one sixth nearer to the anal than to the origin of 

 the ventral. Pyloric appendages 12 to 14. 



Glaucous above, the sides silvery; cheeks, throat, abdomen, and lower 

 surface silvery in the young, golden in the adult. Dorsal and upper caudal lobes 

 greenish brown; shorter rays of dorsal and anal pale reddish brown with a 

 lighter border; lower caudal and anal lobes and ventrals golden; pectoral 

 glaucous; iris silvery, {ovatus, egg-shaped.) 



Described from 4 specimens, measuring respectively 140. 181, 247, and 

 375 millim. ; two of these belong to the Queensland INIuseum and two to the 

 Amateur Fishermen's Association, by whom they were kindly lent to me. The 

 smallest was obtained from Eaine Island and w^as donated by the Wanetta 

 Pearling Company; the second was collected at Darnley Island by Dr. J. R. 

 Tosh; the two others are from Moreton Bay. 



Historical: — The Snub-nosed Swallowtail w^as known to the older Dutch 

 voyagers who sought fortune in the Indies, and opened up the riches of the Spice 

 Islands to the trade of Europe ; whose discoveries were in fact the precursors of 

 our own countrymen's still greater achievements in those bygone days, when 

 human ingenuity, badly equipped but indomitable, pitted its weakness against 

 the forces of nature and the unknown in its ceaseless struggle to elucidate the 

 secrets of the mysterious Orient. Under the name of "pesque-pampus" Renard 

 gave us the earliest figure of this species in his work on the Fishes and Crus- 

 taceans ''que Von trouve autour Jes Isles Mohtrjues et siir les cotes cles Terres 

 Aust rales." This figure was reproduced by Valentyn in his account of Amboina^ 

 In 1858 Linnieus briefly described it from Asiatic examples as Gasterosteus-" 

 ovatus, and in this erroneous position it remained through all the subsequent 

 editions of the Systema Naturae up to Dr. Turton's English translation in 1806. 

 Thirty years before this Forskal had, however, more correctly assigned this fish 

 to the^ Linna-an genus Scomber — with which in his time the bulk of the present- 

 day carangids w^ere associated — under the appropriate name of S. falcatus, his 



28 The Linnean genris Gasterosteus originally contained eight species, and included besides 



the present fish such diverse forms as the Pilot-fish (Naiicrates diictor) carangid, a featherfins 

 {Ptcrois volitans) scorpsenid, and a flying gurnard {Cephalacanthus spinareUa),a as well as the 

 stickleb acks, to which the name is now restricted. 



a This appears to me to be the correct name of the Atlantic species, wliich Regan (Aim. 

 & Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) xi, 1913, p. 183) calls Dactylopterus volitans. Cephalacanthus Lacepede 

 has page precedence over the same author's Dactylopterus, while Gasterosteus spinarella 

 Linnteus (p. 297) is five pages earlier than Trigla volitans (p. 302). The mistake seems to have 

 arisen through confusing Linnaeus' Gasterosteus volitans (p. 296), which is our Ptcrois volitans, 

 with Ms Trigla volitans, which is the present species. Jordan & Richardson (Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mils., xxxiii, p. 665) have fallen into the same trap. 



