44 



NOTES ON THREE SPECIMENS OF FISH HITHERTO 



UNRECORDED FROM TASMANIAN WATERS. 

 By Alexander Morton (Curator of the Tasmanian Museum.) 



To the fishermen and others I am greatly assisted in 

 getting together what I hope will soon be a fairly complete 

 collection of all the known fishes inhabiting Tasmanian 

 waters. During the past two years several additions hitherto 

 unrecorded in Mr. R. M. Johnston's valuable catalogue of the 

 Tasmanian fishes, published in 1880, have been brought to 

 the Museum. The three specimens on the table belong to a 

 genus new to our waters. 



Family Kurtid^. 



Genus Pempheris, Cuv. and Val. Body compressed, 

 oblong; eye large; cleft of mouth oblique; lower jaw 

 prominent ; snout very short ; one short dorsal fin with six 

 spines ; anal elongate, scaly, with three spines ; scales rather 

 small ; villiform teeth in the jaws and on the vomer and 

 palatine bones. Seven branchiostegals, air bladder divided 

 into a anterior and posterior portion. Pyloric appendages 

 moderate number. 



Indian Ocean, Australia, Tropical Pacific. 



Pempheris Macrolepis, Macleay. 



D. 5/12, A. 3/33, V. 1/5, P. 1/6. 



Macleay's catalogue, p. 151. Height of body, twice and 

 two-thirds in the total length ; eye very large, its diameter 

 more than half the length of the head, and covered with a 

 loose skin ; scales large, more particularly behind the pectoral 

 fin ; lateral line extending to the extremity of the tail, and 

 consisting of about sixty scales ; caudal fin moderately forked; 

 colour silvery, with small brown spots towards the back and 

 tail; fins of a dullish colour; eye yellow. 



King George's Sound, Port Jackson. 



Mr. W. L. Boyes, to whom the Museum is greatly indebted 

 for several rare specimens added to the collection, captured 

 these fine examples at George's Bay. On examination, I 

 found one of the specimens differed slightly in the formula in 

 having D. 4/12, A. 3/31; in other respects they are indentieal 

 with Macleay's P. Macrolepis. 



