ON THE GENUS TETRAGONURUS OF RISSO. 



By E. Pierson Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S.E., and J. Douglas 

 Ogilby, F.L.S. 



(Notes from the Aiistralian Museum). 



lu the Proceedings of the Linneau Society of New South 

 Wales, Vol. X., p. 718, the Hon. William Macleay has descril)ed 

 and figured, under the name of Ctenodax loilkinsoni, a fish which 

 had Ijeen picked up dead on the beach at Lord Howe Island, and 

 handed to him for identification by Mr. C. S. Wilkinson. In a 

 subsequent volume of this publication — I. (2), p. 511 — the same 

 author contributes a note, in the course of which he mentions that 

 it had been pointed out to him by Dr. Ramsay that this fish 

 belonged to the genus Tetragonurus of Risso, and should there- 

 fore by rights be called Tetragonurus wilkinsoni. 



The species is first noticed by Rondeletius, who in his Iiibri de 

 Pi.scibus XV., p. 423 (1554), gives an account of a fish whicti had 

 l>een sent to him from Pisa, and which he calls Mugil niger ; he 

 also gives a fairly recognisable figure of it. Rondeletius was 

 followed by Gesner, Willoughby, and A.ldrovandiis, the latter of 

 whom figured it under the name of Corvus ml'/ttcus in 1638. 



From this date until 1810 no further exam pit- ajipears to have 

 been noticed by ichthyologists, but in that year Ri.sso (Ichth. 

 Nice, p. 347, pi. x. f. 37) describes and gives a wretched figure 

 of a recent specimen, applying to it the name of Tetragonurus 

 cuvieri. Risso, along with all tlu; authors preceding him, placed 

 this species among the Mugilidtc, but he subsequently (Eui-. Merid. 

 1827, iii. p. 382) rai.sed it to family rank, keeping it however 

 next in order to the Mugilidce. 



