25 



March 10. 1840. 

 Professor Owen in the Chair. 



A paper hy Dr. Pcichardson, on a collection of Fishes, was read : 

 The proceedings of the Society for June 25, 1839, contain the 

 first part of the description of this collection, which was made at Port 

 Arthur in Van Diemen's Land, by Deputy- Assistant- Commissary- 

 General Lempriere, pursuant to the directions of His Excellency Sir 

 John Frankhn, K.C.B. &c., Lieutenant-Governor of the colony. 

 The subject is resumed in this paper, and the author describes a 

 Dajao, which differs from the three known mullets of Australia in 

 many particulars, and from all the Mvgiloldea: described in the Histoire 

 des Poissons, in the greater number of rays of the anal fin, as well as 

 in the combinations of other characters. The only Dajao mentioned 

 in the work referred to, is an inhabitant of the mountain streams of 

 the Caribbee Islands ; while the Van Diemen's Land one has been 

 found only in the sea ; but perhaps both are anadromous. The rough 

 plates on the palate and vomer of some acknowledged typical mullets 

 assimilate their dentition greatly to that of the Dajaos ; and the pre- 

 sent species approaches the ordinary mullets in the form of the orifice 

 of the mouth, while its palatine and vomerine teeth are nearly as 

 large as those on the jaws. It is prized as an article of Ibod. 



Dajaus Diemensis (Richardson). Tasmanian Bnjao. 

 Dajaus, rostroferl Iruncato, vix prominente. 



Radii .—Br. 6-6 ; P. 15 ; D. 4-1 | 9 ; A. .T | 12 ; V. 1 | 5 ; C. 

 14|. 



The author next remarks that of four Lahri in the collection, twu 

 species, comparatively little ornamented, are furnished with six gill 

 rays, while the other two, more gaily coloured, and one of them in- 

 deed brilhantly striped, have only five rays in the branchiostegous 

 membrane. They are all true labri, but the scales which protect their 

 opercula, though in fact much larger than those of Labrus bergylta. 

 are so deeply imbedded in mucous skin, that in a recent state these 

 fish might pass for examples of the genus Tautogu, which they further 

 resemble in possessing a tolerably regular inner row of minute teeth. 

 They are without scales on the interoperculum, and the small scales 

 on their cheeks being variously distributed, furnish specific charac- 

 ters. All four have canine teeth at the corners of the mouth, and. 

 contrary to the prevailing character of the Labri, the soft rays of the 

 dorsal exceed the spinous ones in number, resembling in this re- 

 spect the Lnbrus poeciloplevra of New Zealand. 



Labrus tetricus. Lab., squamis minutis in ordinibus duobt/x ad 

 No. LXXXVII. — Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



