28 NEW SOUTH WALES 
Of the genus Blennius we have only two species, but there are six of 
Petroscirtes, which is a fish without scales, and a long single spinous 
dorsal fin. The teeth are also a long single'series, with a strong curved 
canine tooth behind. The gill opening is reduced to a-small slit above 
‘the root of the pectoral fin, and the ventrals are curved:organs of two 
or three strong rays. ‘They are all small species, but ‘look formidable. 
They frequent the pools of rocks. 
Cristiceps is another kind of Blenny, of which there are many species 
in Australia, and six in New South Wales. In this genus there are 
two dorsal fins, and the ventrals have one long spine, with two or three 
rays. The gill opening is also wide. One remarkable feature about 
these fishes, which ‘are often most brilliantly coloured with tints of 
bright green, violet, purple, yellow, and carmine, is that they bring 
forth their young alive. The young fishes are admirable objects for 
seeing the circulation of the blood under the microscope. 
The Wrasses. 
Some of our Wrasses or Labride will be described elsewhere, as they 
are useful as food fishes, but there is one genus, Labrichthys, which is so 
numerously represented that, though not much caught as food fish, it 
deserves a special notice. It has the characters of the family, but the 
body is compressed, covered with large scales, and a more or less 
pointed snout. The opercles are scaly, and the cheeks more or less so, 
while the pre-opercle is not serrated, and the lateral line is continuous. 
The teeth are in a single series, but sometimes an interior line, and 
génerally a canine tooth behind. There are nine spines and eleven rays 
in the dorsal fin and three and ten in the anal. The difference between 
these fishes and the Gropers (Cossyphus) is that the latter have four 
anterior canine teeth in each jaw. They are all brightly-coloured fish, 
but not growing to any size. We have no less than twenty-seven 
species in Australian waters, of which one-third are caught upon our 
coasts. 
Scopelide. 
The family is remarkable for containing fishes which have luminous 
glands upon them for giving light to their path in the deep. We have 
none of this genus (Scopelus), but other genera of the family, which 
have the most awful-looking teeth that a fish can possess. If any one 
will turn to page 586 of Giinther’s Study of Fishes he will see what 
is meant, and what kind of an animal this fish must be when 6 feet long. 
It is called Plagyodus ferow, It has been caught off Tasmania, and very 
probably will be found off our coasts. At page 42 of the same work 
there is a portrait of another unamiable-looking member of the same 
family. This is a Sawrus, of which we have one species, and three of 
Saurida, a closely allied genus, having a few more teeth. Fortunately 
they are not large. 
Sea-horses. 
This is a name applied to the genus Hippocampus. These strange 
fishes are known in Europe as well as in Australia, and derive their 
name from the resemblance of the head and fore-part of the body to 
