Miscellaneous. 503 



In the left horn : the first, female ; the second, third, and fourth, 

 male; and the fifth, sixth, and seventh, female. 



A third female rabbit, kept from the male until the rut was at its 

 extreme height, in order that the ova might reach their greatest de- 

 gree of maturity, had three young on the right, and four on the left 

 side. These were — 



In the right horn : the first, male ; the second, female ; and the 

 third, male. 



In the left horn : the first and second, male ; the third, female ; 

 and the fourth, male. 



It is evident that these observations upon a multiparous mammal 

 do not bear out Thury's law, especially as there are more males than 

 females, even in the first case, when copulation took place at the 

 commencement of the rut. Nevertheless the preponderance of males 

 (5 : 2) in the last instance is remarkable. — Comptes Rendus, May 8, 

 1865, p. 941. 



On a new Species of Basse (Labrax Schoenleinii) from Celebes. 

 By Professor Peters. 



In a collection of fishes from Celebes received by the Zoological 

 Museum at Berlin from the bequest of the late Dr. Schonlein in 1840, 

 there is a species of Labrax, a genus which, as now constituted, has 

 been regarded as limited to European seas. In his notices of the 

 fauna of Celebes and of the Indian seas generally, Bleeker mentions 

 no species of Labrax. Hence this fish might be regarded as not 

 really coming from Celebes, but for its being referred to in Schon- 

 lein's original catalogue of fishes from Celebes as "no. 12. Labrax 

 punctatus, n. sp.," along with only 112 other species, all of which 

 are well known to occur in the seas of that part of the world. 



This species agrees most nearly in its dentition and colouring with 

 that which Dr. Giinther (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. Sept. 1863) has 

 lately distinguished from the other two Mediterranean species under 

 the name of Labrax punctatus, regarding it as Scicena punctata, 

 Bloch. The present species has the same number of fin-rays as the 

 one just mentioned, namely, D. 9 - 1, 13 ; A. 3, 12 ; lateral line with 

 58 to 60 scales, above it 9, and below it (to the anal fin) 1 1 rows of 

 scales ; it differs greatly from Bloch's figure (pi. 305) by its much 

 narrower praeoperculum, between the posterior margin of which and 

 the eye there are only three rows of scales. 



In Labrax diacanthus and L. punctatus the distance of the margin 

 of the prseoperculum from the eye is equal to the diameter of the 

 latter ; in the present species it is only one-half of it. In this re- 

 spect it is more like L. orientalis, Gthr., from the Egyptian coast. 



Professor Peters agrees with Dr. Steindachner in thinking that 

 L. elongatus (genus Dicentrarchus, Gill) is to be united with L. dia- 

 canthus, Bloch (Lupus, Lacep.). Ehrenberg's specimens from 

 Alexandria, referred to this species by Valenciennes, all have three 

 anal spines, whilst two other examples of L. diacanthus, from Cette 

 and Trieste, present abnormally only two spinous rays in the anal 

 fin. — Monatsber. Berl. Akad. der Wiss., February 1865, p. 95. 



