168 



that the upper eye is in advance of the lower one, and the 

 contrary is here the case. 



PLEUKONECTES. 



It is only with considerable doubt that I place in this genus 

 the following sort, as the dorsal begins before the line of 

 the eyes ; but in Dr. Gunther's division of the Plenronectidce, 

 it would be included in his second division : — " Cleft of the 

 mouth narrow, with the dentition much more developed on the 

 blind side than on the coloured." The lower eye is considerably 

 in advance of the upper one ; and the dorsal does not begin on 

 the foremost part of the snout. 



PLETJEONECTES ? VICTORIA. 



(The Melbourne Flounder'). 



The height of the body is twice and one-third in the total 

 length, or less than twice up to the base of the caudal ; head a 

 little over four times in the total length ; eye five times in the 

 length of head ; the space between the eyes narrow and scale- 

 less ; the teeth are absent on the coloured side, but are rather 

 long, slender, and numerous, particularly in young individuals ; 

 on the other side they appear in part worn out in the 

 old ones ; the snout, up to the edge of the lower eye, is 

 as long as the diameter of the latter ; the same diameter 

 of the upper eye, is contained one and one-fourth times 

 in the snout ; the operculum has an angle over the root 

 of the pectorals ; the lateral line is straight, and runs over 

 about eighty-five scales ; it is prolongated on the head, and 

 emits a branch behind the operculum, which runs obliquely 

 towards the dorsal, that it meets between the fifth and sixth 

 dorsal ray ; the scales are small and rounded ; in the old speci- 

 mens they are sensibly concave, particularly on the head and 

 on the upper part of the body. The dorsal is much higher 

 towards the middle of the body than in its otherparts, it has fifty- 

 six or fifty-seven rays, which are always longer than the mem- 

 branes, and gives the upper edge an appearance of being fringed ; 

 the anterior ones are more prolongated, and the first of all is free, 

 bifid, and only connected with the others by a very low mem- 



