16 Dr. Richardson's Contributions to 



palatine bones have been cut away, but in other respects they 

 are in excellent condition. Lieut. Emery not being an ichthy- 

 ologist, has sometimes omitted to portray the minute ser- 

 ratures of the opercular pieces, and has not always distin- 

 guished the spinous from the articulated rays. On this ac- 

 count it is difficult to fix the genus of the undescribed species ; 

 but the drawings exhibit no mean share of artistical skill, and, 

 judging from the few known species among them, are correct 

 representations of the recent fish, and consequently valuable 

 records of their real tints of colour. In preparing the follow- 

 ing notes, I have availed myself as often as my professional 

 avocations and residence at a distance from London would 

 allow, of the valuable collection of drawings made in Cook's 

 first and second voyages by Parkinson and Forster, now in 

 the Banksian library. Many of these figiu-es are referred to 

 in the posthumous edition of Bloch by Schneider, and also in 

 the ' Histoire des Poissons' ; and it may be advantageous to 

 mention, that the mode in which the fin-rays are noted in 

 pencil at the bottom of the drawings, viz. by putting the 

 number of spinous rays as the numerator, and the whole num- 

 ber of rays of each fin, both spinous and articulated, as the 

 denominator of a fraction, has sometimes led the authors of 

 the works just named into error, the denominator being quoted 

 as the amount of the soft rays alone. In most instances, 

 however, the quotation is correctly made. 



Mr. Gould destines his collection for the British Museum. 



Apogon aprion (Nob.), Rough-tongued Apogon. 



No. 11. Mr. Gilbert's list. 



Mr. Gilbert states that the aborigines name this fish * Mun~ 

 duruk,' and that it is a very local species, having hitherto 

 been seen only in King's River (near Victoria, Port Essing- 

 tou), and not in the other very similar and closely adjacent 

 streams. The species seems to differ from all those described 

 in the ' Histoire des Poissons,' in the total absence of serra- 

 tures on the preoperculum, and in the presence of a small 

 cluster of teeth on the tongue. 



It is more compressed than the A. rexmullorum, but does not differ 

 much from that fish in the general form of its profile. Its height in 

 the middle is contained three times and a half in the total length, 

 caudal included. The length of the liead exceeds the height of the 

 body, and the thickness is greatest at the gill-covers, being there 

 equal to about half the height behind the ventrals. The muzzle 

 is also wide at the preorbitars. The preoperculum has the raised 

 acute edges posteriorly and inferiorly, proper to the genus ; there 

 is a less conspicuous ridge on the foremost border of the operculum. 



