164 



The same author gives the genus the following characters : — 

 " Body elongate, compressed, and covered with minute scales ; 

 eye of moderate size ; vertical fins, continuous ; ventral fins re- 

 placed by a pair of bifid filaments (barbels) inserted below the 

 glosshyal ; teeth in the jaws, on the vomer and on the palatine 

 bones ; the outer series in the jaws, and the single series on the 

 palates, contain strong teeth ; lower jaw received within the 

 upper ; vent situated at some distance behind the pectoral ; 

 seven or eight branchiostegals ; gill-opening wide ; gills, four, a 

 slit behind the fourth ; pseudobranchise and air-bladder present ; 

 pyloric appendages in small number (six). 



GENYPTERUS AUSTRALIS. 



(The Rock Line.) 



Height eight times in the total length, and one and a-half 

 times in that of the body ; eye seven and a-half times in 

 the head ; the barbels in the young specimens about one-third 

 the length of the head, but in the old specimens one-half this 

 length ; in the young the outer filament is much shorter than the 

 inner half; but in the large ones they are about equal. 



The teeth of the jaws are on two series ; the outer ones are 

 large, thick, conical, and wide apart one from the other ; the inner 

 ones smaller, of the same form, but placed nearer one to the 

 other, and sometimes two by two ; in the young specimens the 

 teeth are more slender ; the inner ones in numerous series and 

 arched. The lateral line is well marked on the full length of the 

 body, except on its posterior eighth part ; it is formed of several 

 lines placed near one another, and having a notch from dis- 

 tance to distance ; the number of these notches is about forty- 

 seven ; at some of these there is a short oblong appendice. 

 The scales are small; the transversal lines numbering nearly 

 three hundred ; the pectorals are all contained about two and a- 

 half times in the length of the head. 



The general colour is of a light lilac ; the belly is white ; the 

 body is covered with large marbled blotches, irregular in form, but 

 generally rounded ; on the back they are confluent, and they ex- 

 tend over the head. The eye is silvery. The dorsal and anal are 

 dark and marbled like the body ; the extreme edge of the dorsal 

 is white, and the one of the anal flesh colour ; pectorals spotted 



