THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



individual, an hermaphrodite, exhibiting the characteristic colours of the two presump- 

 tive species on opposite sides. 



The Tasmanian Cow-fish rarely exceeds six inches in length, but is quite the 

 gem of its tribe from an aesthetic standpoint. In the male fish, which is the more 

 brilliant of the two, the ground colour of the body of the living fish is a bright 

 grass-green above and on the sides, and pale lemon-yellow beneath ; that of the tail 

 or caudal fin orange-yellow ; and the remaining pectoral, dorsal and anal fins a neutral 

 transparent tint. Excepting the pale-yellow ventral area, the remaining surface of the 

 of his body is traversed by broad, irregular, more or less interrupted, stripes of the 

 most brilliant ultramarine blue, the edges of which are usually distinctly defined by 

 narrow border-lines of dark chocolate brown. Two or three of the central blue 

 body stripes are usually continued into the tail, forming upon that member loop-like 

 patterns. The pale-yellow ventral region is further variegated by a broad reticulated 

 pattern in pale blue. 



It is especially remarkable of the broad blue stripes that ornament the general 

 surface of the body that they are never of a precisely similar pattern in any two 

 individuals. Some three or four, at the most, of the horizontal central stripes are 

 continued uninterruptedly from the head or snout to the posterior region. Those 

 belonging to the upper or dorsal area, more particularly, are usually broken up into 

 short lengths or isolated spots, and this more rarely occurs also with relation to the 

 central and lower stripes. An example of a characteristically marked male specimen 

 of this Cow-fish is represented by Chromo-Plate VII., fig. A. 



The female of the species, formerly known as Ostracion aurita, depicted oppo- 

 site the letter B in the same Plate, possesses somewhat the same pattern markings, 

 but is distinguished by altogether distinct tints. The ground colour of the body of the 

 female individuals is chiefly a pale pinkish grey or dove-colour, with local flushes 

 of a more decided pink, and the lower surface entirely pure yellow. The broad blue 

 longitudinal stripes destinctive of the males are represented in the females by 

 corresponding ones which are of a rich reddish-brown hue, and are rarely, if ever, 

 broken up into short isolated lengths or spots. In place of this, however, the stripes 

 commonly coalesce more or less extensively with one another in individually varying 

 patterns, and very frequently in the neighbourhoods of the bases of the dorsal 

 and pectoral fins assume an irregular helicoidal or spiral design. 



The number of spinous processes developed on the carapace of this Tasmanian 

 species are considerably in excess of those possessed by other familiar types, such as 



