155 



Body of a grey colour, with a few irregular green spots on the 

 back ; upper part of the head green, with the sides blue ; on 

 these there are numerous longitudinal undulating narrow lines ; 

 the posterior margin of the scales, on the sides of the body, are 

 pink, as are also the throat and the fins ; the dorsal, caudal, anal, 

 and ventrals have a rather broad black margin ; the three first 

 are covered with irregular narrow spots, forming oblique lines 

 on the dorsal and anal, and transverse ones on the caudal. 



Seen several times in the Melbourne Market. In size never 

 more than from 5 to 6 inches long. 



Nota. — I should have taken this for Balteatus, if any of the 

 specimens I have seen had shown any trace of the dark band 

 from which the name of the sort has been derived. 



OLISTHOPS. 

 Dr. Richardson formed this genus in the " Annals and Maga- 

 zine of Natural History for 1850," and gave a figure of the sort 

 he knew in the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society " of 

 the same year. Dr. Grunther changed the name to Olis- 

 therops ; but I see no sort of use, nor even of right, in 

 these so-called rectifications. The latter author charac- 

 terises the genus thus: — "Head entirely naked; scales of 

 moderate size ; lateral line continuous ; snout of moderate 

 extent •, dorsal sprues numerous, flexible." All this agrees 

 well with the fish I here describe ; but the sort known is 

 represented as having a blueish streak along the upper and lower 

 margins of the caudal, and along the upper margin of the pec- 

 toral, and may be different from mine. 



OLISTHOPS CYANOMELAS. 



Olisthops cyanomelas, Hichard., Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hint., 

 1851, p. 291. 

 Body elongate ; front part of the head rounded. Height of 

 body five times in the total length ; bead five and a-half times in 

 the same ; orbit five times in the length of the head. Teeth like 

 those of Scarus, soldered together, and forming a sort of parrot 

 beak, on the edge of which the teeth are visible. Lateral line 

 extending on the root of the caudal ; it is rather flexuous, and 

 considerably rounded over the pectoral, running over about sixty 

 scales ; these are of moderate size, and are covered with concen- 

 tric lines. On the transverse line I find nineteen scales, on the 



