Haast. — On some Undescrihed Fishes of New Zealand. 277 



anal fin ; scales small cycloid ; lateral line straight ; gill openings narrow, the 

 gill membranes being broadly united below the throat. 



BOWENIA NOViE-ZEALANDI^. Sp. nov. 



D. 56; Y. 6j A. 37 j P. 11. 



The height of the body is contained two and one-eighth in the total length 

 without caudal, the length of the^ head nearly four times ; the lower eye is in 

 advance of the upper by about one-half of its diameter, they are separated by 

 a naked space, which is about equal to the vertical diameter of the eye ; snout 

 as long as the eye, which is one-fifth of the length of the head ; the maxillary 

 of the right side extends below the anterior margin of the eye ; teeth minute, 

 in villiform bands j anterior rays of dorsal fin produced beyond the connecting 

 membrane ; the dorsal fin commences on the foremost part of the snout, its 

 longest ray being the thirty-first, situated a little behind the middle of the fin \ 

 caudal straight, of equal length with the head ; the gill opening does not 

 extend upwards beyond the base of the pectoral ; the two ventral fins are 

 joined posteriorly, and are connected by a complete membrane with the anal 

 fin ; the length of the pectoral two-thirds that of the head. 



Total length 10 in. 7 lines. 



Uniform light brownish olive. 



Lake Ellesmere. 



The Canterbury Museum possesses from the same lake — which generally 

 contains brackish water, and only at some seasons salt water, when in direct 

 communication with the sea — two other specimens, 12 in. 3 lines and 12 in. 

 1 line total length, which agree with the foregoing description of B. novm- 

 zealandice, with the exception that the right ventral fin is only continuous in 

 the same line with the anal fin, being joined to it by a broad and complete 

 membrane without rays, the left ventral fin occurring separate. 



However, this difference may be accounted for by the connecting membrane 

 of that left ventral having been torn ofi" in both specimens, of which one is 

 not in a good state of preservation. 



Another and striking peculiarity consists in the very strange form of the 

 head of both. The dorsal fin, instead of commencing on the foremost part of 

 the snout, does not reach to the head, the skull being covered with skin to the 

 post-frontal bone ; the left eye lying nearly on the top of the head. A little 

 distance behind that eye the body rises, forming here, as it were, a crest or 

 free pointed process projecting over the eye. On the foremost part of that 

 crest the dorsal fin begins. 



I should at once have considered both specimens as monstrosities, brought 

 about by arrested development, had I not found both specimens alike, but 



