100 



or very elongate appendages, sometimes absent. 

 Pseudobranchige sometimes bidden." 



It appears to me that this family is placed by Dr. Gunther too 

 far from Percidce, to which it is very nearly allied. 



In speaking of this family Dr. Gunther says, " not to be found 

 in Australia ■ but in this, as it so often happens, nature does not 

 submit herself to the laws imposed by naturalists. The presence 

 of a large Scicena in the Victorian seas was first announced by 

 Professor M'Coy, in his " Notes on the Zoology of Victoria," in 

 the Eeports of the International Exhibition of Melbourne, 1866. 

 He considers it as the same as the Mediterranean sort, 8c. 

 Aqitila. This might have been the case, as the species that abounds 

 at the Cape of Good Hope, and on which Cuvier had formed his 

 Scicena Hololepidota, does not appear to differ specially from it, 

 but on comparing a specimen of the Australian fish with the 

 descriptions of Cuvier and Dr. Gunther, I find difi'erences which 

 will not allow me to adopt the opinion of the learned Professor 

 of the Melbourne University. In fact it appears doubtful that 

 it even belongs to the same genus. Dr. Gunther gives Scicena 

 as a character to have the upper jaw overlapping the other one, 

 both jaws being equal ; and in the Australian fish the lower jaw 

 protrudes over the upper one. Cuvier attributes also to Scioena 

 the character of having the praeoperculum serrated ; but in old 

 individuals this disappears. Taking even for granted that the 

 Australian fish belongs to Scicena, we still find numerous difi'er- 

 ences with the European sort. 



SCICENA. 



SCLERA ANTARCTICA. 



{The King Fish.) 



Taking Cuvier's description, we find : 1st, that in the Euro- 

 pean sort the cleft of the mouth extends to below one-third of 

 the eye : in Antarctica it ends before the eye. 2nd, that at the 

 lower jaw there are numerous small teeth between the large 

 ones : none exist in the Australian fish. 3rd, the diameter of 

 the eye forms about one-sixth of the total length of the head : 

 in Antarctica the orbit is only one-eighth, and the eye 



