ON THE ICHTHYOLOGY OF THE SEAS OF CHINA AND JAPAN. 243 



Crenidens melanichthys, Temm. et Schl. F. J. Sieb. p. 75. pi. 39. Icon. 

 Reeves, 247 ; Hardw. Acanth. 72. Chinese name, Luh yen ke, < ; Green- 

 eyed fowl" (Birch, Reeves). Rad. D. 14|14; A. 3|12; C. 17; P. 17; 

 V. 1|5. (Fauna Jap. and Reeves's fig.) 



The authors of the * Fauna Japonica' have named this species as the type of a peculiar 

 genus, but have not assigned any strong reason for separating it from Crenidens. They who 

 agree with them in thinking that the group ought to be subdivided, should observe that Mr. 

 Gray's generic name Girella is prior to the Melanichthys of the ' Fauna Japonica.' In Mr. 

 Reeves's drawing the general colour is black and blackish-purple, with purer purple tints on 

 the face. The caudal is glossed with purplish-brown, the soft dorsals, anal and pectorals, 

 with deep blackish green, and the ventrals, spinous dorsal and spines of the anal, with auricula- 

 purple. The eyes are green. These various shades of dark colours give a general blackish 

 aspect to the fish. In the illumination of the figure in the ' Fauna Japonica ' the colour is 

 black, the greenish and purple tints being omitted, as they are in a drawing made by Deputy- 

 Assistant Commissary General Neill, of Crenidens tephraops, a Western- Australian fish, which 

 agrees nearly in outline with the Japanese fish. (Ichth. Ereb. and Terror, pi. 41. f. 1,2.) The 

 Australian names are Kowelany and Memoir. 



Another Western-Australian fish, similar in profile, has the body thinning off like a wedge 

 towards the belly, and is known to the settlers by the name of " Zebra-fish," on account of 

 nine black vertical bars on the sides. Its local names are Kgummul and Karraway, " The 

 striped." 



A third Australian fish having the same local name of Memon, and another also of Muddier, 

 has more of a Scaroid aspect than the preceding, but yet appears to be of the same genus. 

 A scale which accompanies Mr. Neill's drawing has the same form and ptenoid structure with 

 those of the preceding two Australian fish. The caudal is truncated, with the side-points pro- 

 jecting to the length of one-third of the fin, and the intermaxillaries and maxillaries ? are set 

 by a close row of large trenchant teeth. The colour is black, marbled with sky-blue and a 

 brownish-red tint on the breast. The ventrals blackish-gray and blue ; the other fins black. 

 The figure is twenty-one inches long. Mr. Neill's drawings of these and many other Austra- 

 lian fish are contained in a volume which he presented to the British Museum. The ' Ichthy- 

 ology of the Voyage of the Erebus and Terror' (p. 36, pi. 25. f. 2) contains a description and 

 figure of Crenidens triglyphus, a Port Jackson fish which has the physiognomy of Crenidens 

 forskalii, while the group of Melanichthys approaches more to the Pomacentridce in general 

 aspect. 



Hab. Seas of Japan and China. 



Fam. Acanthurid^e. 

 Amphacanthus margaritiferus, C. et V. x. p. 145. " Chcetodon cana- 

 liculars, Park Lin. Tr. iii.p. 33. Amph. canaliculars, Bl. Schn. p. 209" 

 (Hist, des Pois. x. p. 146). Amph. albo-punctatus, Temm. et Schl. F. J. 

 Sieb. p. 128. Icon. Reeves, 259; Hardw. Acanth. Rad. D. 13|10; 

 A. 7|9; C. 17-fi ; P. 15 ; V. 2|3. (Spec. Camb. Ph. Inst.) 



A specimen of this fish from Canton was presented to the Cambridge Philosophical Society 

 by the Rev. George Vachell. The profile of the snout is somewhat gibbous before tbe eye. 

 The teeth are deeply notched, the cusps unequal and crenated. The preoperculum is marked 

 at its angle by three or four diverging furrows, and a few small scales are sunk in the integu- 

 ment of the cheek close to its bend. The lateral line is composed of a series of short simple 

 tubes not very close. Eye rather large. The drawing is grass-green on the upper parts and 

 on the dorsal and caudal fins, the colour fading to mountain-green and bluish-gray as it de- 

 scends the sides. Many oval silvery spots are scattered over the sides. The spinous dorsal is 

 narrowly edged with blackish-gray ; there are dots of that colour on the rays, and the anal and 

 ventrals are spotted or barred with the same. The pectorals are pale green at the base, passing 

 into a clay colour on the disc of the fins. The belly and sides of the head have much silvery 

 lustre. Length 7 inches. The green changes to brown in spirits. 



Hab. Seas of China and Japan. Indian ocean. 



Amphacanthus fuscescens, " Houttuyn, Mem. de Haerl. xx. p. 333;" 



C. et V. x. p. 156; Temm. et Schl. F. J. Sieb. p. 127. pi. 68. f. 1 ; Icon. 



Reeves, 115; Hardw. Acanth. 229. Chinese name, Le mong (Reeves); 



Laimang (Bridgem. Chrest. 37). Rad. D. 13|10 ; A. 7|9; V. 2|3, &c. 



A mounted and varnished specimen exists in the British Museum, which was brought from 

 Canton by John Reeves, Esq. ; and there is another example in the Chinese collection at Hyde 



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