424 Dr. Richardson's Contributions to 



the caudal. The profile of the head blends gradually with the curve 

 of the back, the gill- cover appears to be much rounded off poste- 

 riorly, and the conical teeth are slightly curved and diminish rapidly 

 in size as they recede from the symphysis. There is no canine tooth 

 at the angle of the mouth, and no scales are depicted on the head. 

 •' Spams rubecula. (' Kurakura' aboriginorum.) Habitat prope 'Cape 

 Kidnappers.' Corpus vivide rubrum, subtus palhdum. Pinna dor- 

 salis saturate rubra, superne punctis fusco-sanguineis adspersa. 

 Pinnae pectorales rubicundse, immaculatse. Pinnae ventrales pallide 

 incarnata?, apice rubescentes. Pinna analis ex aurantiaco-rubra. 

 Pinna caudalis saturissime aurantiaca, fascia lata, nigra ad basin." 

 " Varietas pallidior. Totus piscis pallidior, pinna dorsali incarnata, 

 punctis lineisque sanguineis adspersa, pinna caudali flavicante, alias 

 simillimus." (Solander, Pise. Austr. p. 5.) In the figure the tint 

 of tlie head is dark lake-red, that of the body lighter, and of the 

 caudal yellow, with a lilac edging and a well-defined even black bar 

 across its base. 



Several other members of the genus described in the ' Hi- 

 stoire des Poissons ' have one or more black bars on the tail 

 or caudal fin, but they differ materially from rubecula in other 

 characters. Among these are Julis cingulum and /. caudima- 

 cnla. Mr. Gilbert's collection contains a species obtained at 

 the island of Timor, which approaches very near to caudima- 

 cula (C. & V. xiii. p. 465), and it may be only a variety of 

 that fish, but it offers a different distribution of colours, though 

 it has the same black bar across the tail. As it has not ac- 

 tually been detected on the Australian coasts, a description 

 of it is foreign to the precise object of this paper. The Cre- 

 nUabrus chabrolii of Lesson, which is the Cossyjihus maided 

 of the ^ Histoire des Poissons,' has also a black bar on the 

 trunk of the tail, but farther removed from the caudal fin than 

 in rubecula. The fish also diftcrs from the latter in the pre- 

 sence of conspicuous scaly fillets at the base of the dorsal and 

 caudal, in the elongation of the ventrals, in the rounded cau- 

 dal, in the brilliant streaks on the head, the rows of spots on 

 the body, and in its very different general aspect, which is 

 peculiar to the genus Cossyphus, while the rubecula has more 

 the character of a Julis. The Labrus ephippium is another of 

 the family which has its tail encircled by a black or deep blue 

 ring. It has nine spinous rays in the dorsal, is well cha- 

 racterized by a saddle-shaped black patch on the back, and is 

 supposed to be a native of the Javan sea. As the distance 

 between Timor and the islands leading to Java is not great 

 from the north-west coast of Australia, and their parallels 

 of latitude differ little, we may expect to find much similarity 

 in their ichthyology. 



