308 



Transactions . — Zoology . 



Abt. XLII. — Additions to the List of Neio Zealand Fishes. 

 By. T. W. Kirk, Assistant in the Colonial Museum. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 10th January, 1880.] 

 In October last I received notice that a Turtle had been found at Island 

 Bay, near Wellington, but, on reaching the spot, was greatly disappointed 

 to find that the person who discovered it had not been sufficiently careful to 

 secure his prize, which had consequently been washed away by the next 

 tide ; however, I was recompensed by finding specimens of tlrree fish, men- 

 tioned below, none of which had previously been obtained on the New 

 Zealand coast, though they are all found in Australia. 



Atypus strigatus, Giinth. 

 Giinth. II., p. 64. 



The genus Atyjms was created 

 by Dr. Giinther specially for the 

 reception of this beautiful little 

 fish, which he mentions very 

 minutely. The following is his 

 description : — 



B. 7. D. yJ-V^. L. lat. 70-75 ; L. trans, ii. 

 "The general form of the body is that of a species of Therapon; it is 

 compressed, oblong, its greatest height below the fifth dorsal spine being 

 one-thu-d of the total length. The upper profile descends obhquely down- 

 wards to the end of the snout, in a very sHghtly curved line. The length 

 of the head is four-and-a-half in the total length ; the extent of the snout 

 is less than the diameter of the eye, or the space between the orbits, which 

 is slightly convex. The cleft of the mouth is small, the upper maxillary 

 reaching to the anterior margin of the orbit. The prseoperculum is nearly 

 as wide as high, with the lower margin rounded and very sHghtly serrated. 

 No pores are visible at or between the pieces of the mandibula3. The eye 

 is of moderate size. The praoperculum is rather deeply serrated round its 

 margins, the denticulations being longest at the angle, which is a right one. 

 The operculum is not armed. All the head is covered with very small 

 scales. The dorsal fin begins in a vertical drawn from between the bases 

 of the pectoral and ventral fins, and terminates at a distance from the 

 caudal which equals that between the eye and the posterior margin of the 

 operculum. The upper margin of the fin has no notch between the two 

 portions, and its profile descends gradually from the fifth spine to the termi- 

 ijation of the fin. The spines are of moderate strength, broader on one 



