BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 13 



Centropogon AUSTRALIS. 



■Cottus austral is, White, Voy. N. S. Wales, p. 266, c. fig., 17U0, 



Port Jackson. 

 Apistus nustralis, Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss,, iv. p. 



398, 1829. 

 ■Centropnf/un australis, Giintber, Catal. Fish., ii. p. 128, 1860,'//;'/ 



Zool. Challenger, i. Shore Fishes p. 28, 1880 ; Macleay, 



Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, v. 1881, p. 436; Ogilby, 



Catal. Fish. N. S. Wales, p. 22, 1886. 

 The Fortescue* Woods, Fish, and Fisher. N. S. Wales, p. 49, 1882. 

 Neosebastes australis, Waite, Thetis, p. 103, pi. xxi, 1899. 



FORTESCUE. 



D. xvi 9. A. iii 5. Sc. 7/80/41. L. 1 28. 

 Depth of body greatest below the fifth dorsal spine, where 

 it is 2f to 3 in the total length ; length of head 2| to 3!- in 

 the same. Snout as long as or a little shorter than the diameter 

 of the eye, which is 2i to 3 in the length of the head. Nasal 

 tentacle fan-shaped and fimbriated. Width of interorbital 

 region 5|- to 5f in the head. Maxillary extending to or a little 

 beyond the vertical from the anterior border of the pupil, its 

 length 3 in the head, the width of its distal extremity about one 

 third of the diameter of the eye. Preocular, supraocular, postoc- 

 ular, tympanic, parietal, and nuchal spines well developed. Inter- 

 orbital ridgeswell developed, smooth ; temporal region with three 

 short spinose ridges. Posterior preorbital spine extending back- 

 wards to or slightly beyond the vertical from the hinder margin of 

 the eye, its length from the base of the anterior spine 2 to 2^ in 



* Both Tenison Woods and Macleay have erroneously applied this 

 name to Pentaroge marmorata. This is obviously wrong, that species being 

 so rare in Port Jackson that during a residence there of fifteen years I have 

 not seen a single local example. Apistux marmorntus, Cuv. & Val. (Hist. 

 Nat. Poiss., iv. p. 416) was founded on a fish said to have been obtained by 

 Peron at Timor. Since that time it has not been found there, nor was it 

 known to Bleeker from any of the islands of the Indo-Malayan Archipelago ; 

 but it, or an allied species, is commonly found on the Tasmanian and Vic- 

 torian coasts. If the fact be taken into consideration that the members of 

 the Cuvierian genus Apistus are, as a rule, greatly restricted in their distri- 

 bution, it will at once appear to be unlikely that the same species should 

 inhabit the warm waters of tropical Timor and the cold seas of temperate 

 Tasmania. Perhaps two distinct species are confonnded under the one 

 name. Peron was fortunate in his Timor collections ; he got Cnidoglanis 

 macrocephalus (= niegastoma) there, but no one has found it since ! 



