BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 17 



detail, that I cannot help suspecting that the fish there figured 

 differs specifically from the common " fortescue " of our litoral 

 fauna. This would account for its capture in what Waite rightly 

 regards as the " unusual depth of 16-19 fathoms." 



The following are the more prominent variant characters 

 between the specimen (from Port Jackson) now before me, and 

 Waite's figure : — 



In the typical Centropogon austraiis (White) t the body is 

 less robust, the greatest depth in numerous examples being 2f 

 in length against 2f in the figure ; the jaws are equal ; the nasal 

 tentacle is larger, and fimbriated, the opercular ridges are more 

 conspicuous and widely divergent ; the third dorsal spine is 

 much higher, never less than f of the head and thrice the height 

 of the first spine ; the soft part of the dorsal fin has nine rays, 

 and the last is almost wholly united by membrane to the back ; 

 the second anal spine is much longer and stronger than the 

 third, as high as the 7th or 8th dorsal spine, and half the 

 length of the head ; the pectorals are rounded and symmetrical, 

 the middle (7th and 8th) rays the longest, not reaching beyond 

 the ventral and not surpassing the head in length; the ventral 

 is much larger, rounded, reaching beyond the vent, ^ of the 

 length of the head, its spine as long as the second anal spine. 



NoTESTHEs, gen. nov. 



Body elliptical, compressed. Scales small, adherent, 

 ctenoid, concentrically striated, arranged in regular series. 

 Lateral line complete, not extending on the caudal fin ; the 

 tubes simple and straight, forming together a continuous band, 

 each tube corresponding in length to from two to three body 

 scales, and raised conspicuously above them. Head large, 

 entirely naked, without dermal appendages, its upper profile 

 obliquely linear ; snout short and broad, with somewhat 

 declivous profile ; preorbital pore large ; a series of similar pores 

 along each half of the lower jaw inside the dentary bone ; a pore 

 at the root of each preopercular spine. Nape slightly rounded, 

 nearly continuous with the head, naked, as also is the thorax. 

 Mouth with rather large oblique cleft ; lower jaw the longer ; 

 premaxillaries protractile, produced in a skinny lobe, which 



t White's specimens would certainly belong to the form "better known 

 in shallow water cruising around the piles of piers and jetties " (Waite), 

 rather than to a deeper sea form which he had no means of capturing in its 

 natural haunts. 

 B 



