FISH. 163 
Famity.—SCORP/ENIDZ. 
2 
APISTUS 
Mr. Darwin’s collection contains a species of this genus procured in King 
George’s Sound, New Holland, which, from the bad state of preservation of the 
specimen, it is scarcely possible to identify with certainty. Possibly it may be 
new, as it does not seem to accord very exactly with any of those described in the 
“Histoire des Poissons ;” but I shall not consider it such, nor do more than point 
out a few of its more obvious characters. 
It is not determinable, whether it was originally one of the naked species of this genus, 
or whether the scales have been rubbed off, but probably the former. The suborbital and 
preopercular spines are strong, and considerably developed: the former reaches back further 
than the maxillary, and nearly to the posterior part of the orbit, and has another very small 
spine at its base. The lower jaw advances beyond the upper. ‘The head is about one-third of 
the entire length. The eyes are large, their diameter being contained about three and a half 
times in the length of the head. The dorsal commences in a line with the ascending margin 
of the preopercle. The first spine is half the length of the second; the second is a little 
shorter than the third, which is longest, and equals two-thirds of the depth of the body; the 
fourth and succeeding ones decrease very gradually ; the soft portion of this fin is a little 
higher than the hinder part of the spinous. The first anal spine is rather more than half the 
length of the second, which is the strongest of the three, though not much longer than the 
third. The pectorals are rather pointed, and a little shorter than the head. The ventrals are 
attached a little behind the pectorals, and are not very much shorter than those fins. 
The following is the fin-ray formula: 
Dv13/9% Avsies*@? 11, &ers Bewieyv als: 
Length 4 inches 6 lines. 
The species to which this approaches nearest would seem to be the A. mger 
of Cuvier and Valenciennes ; but there is no appearance of the small elevations on 
the skin resembling hairs, which those authors mention in their description of this 
last, and, on the whole, I am inclined to consider it as distinct. 
AGRIOPUS HiIspiDus. p. 38. 
Notwithstanding what I have advanced in regard to this species, further 
consideration has inclined me to suspect, that it may prove ultimately only the 
young of the A. Peruvianus. In that case, however, it would appear that the 
absence of vomerine teeth can only be assigned as a character of this genus in the 
adult state. 
