FISHES. '210 



Fam. EsociD-ffi. 



61. Galaxias alepidotus. Cuv., Reg. An. 2, p. 283. 



(Esox alepidotus, G. Forster, fig. pict. 2, t. 235. 

 J. R. Forster, MS. II. 62, apud Bl. Schn., p. 395.) 

 Named by the natives of Dusky Bay " He-para," and by Cook's 

 sailors " Rock-trout." 



62. Hemiramphus marginatus. Lacepede. (Cuv., Reg. 



An., ii., p. 286.) 



One of the fish sent by Dr. Dieffenbach to the College of Sur- 

 geons (now in the British Museum) is a hemiramphus. Its scales 

 have in a great measure perished, as very often occurs when fish of 

 this genus are put up in weak spirit, but the specimen is otherwise 

 in pretty good condition. I have referred it to the marginatus 

 of Lacepede (v. vii., 2), though, in the absence of good figures or au- 

 thentic examples, I do so with doubt. I had received two speci- 

 mens of the same fish from Port Arthur, Van Diemen's Land, 

 before I saw Dr. Dieffenbach's collection. The table of dimen- 

 sions will suffice to give an idea of the proportions of the fish. 



Its form is the usual one of the elongated htmiramphi : the 

 depth of the body is almost uniform from the nape to the anus, 

 which is remote from the head. The thickness is but little less 

 than the height, but the form becomes more compressed at the 

 origin of the dorsal and anal fins, which are opposite to each other. 

 The height also slopes rapidly down there into the trunk of the 

 tail, which is short and rather slender. The back is broadish and 

 rounded, and, the scales having dropped off, shows longitudinal 

 lines, marking the course of the large muscles of the back. There 

 is a bright silvery band along the side, and the lateral line follow- 

 ing the curve of the belly near its edge can still be traced. The 

 scaly triangular upper jaw, as usual in the genus, is capable of being 

 elevated by a lunge-like joint, without the slightest power of exten- 

 sion. The lower jaw, resembling the bill of snipe, is bordered by a 

 thin lip, whose width is equal to half that of the lower jaw itself. 

 This lip folds back, and when raised permits a row of 15 or 16 

 round pores to be seen on the basal half of the jaw. The orifice 

 of the mouth corresponds exactly with the semi-lanceolate form of 

 the upper jaw, and it is armed entirely round its border by a 

 narrow, crowded band of short linear, tricuspid teeth. The cusps 

 are slightly divergent, and the central one of each tooth is rather 

 the largest. In a second species from Port Arthur, which has a 



