208 



Dr. Richardson's Contributions to 



name of c Kouripoua.' Under this, as a specific appellation, 

 M. Lesson has figured and described the fish in the zoological 

 part of Duperrey's voyage, which appeared in 1 HM) ; but he 

 therein claims 1827 as the date of his first publication of the 

 species. The third volume of the 6 Histoire des Poissons ' con- 

 tains a full description of M. Lesson's specimen, under the 

 name of cirrhosus. Though Cuvier was inclined to consider 

 Lesson's and Forster's fishes to be the same, he separated 

 them in the work just quoted, because no mention is made by 

 Forster of the short mental barbel, and because " il donne a 

 son poisson un sternum, e'est-a-dire un pedicule pectoral, a 

 trois tubercules, qui est bien dans les Uranoscopes ordinaires, 

 mais qui le precedent (cirrhosus) n'a pas." The latter objec- 

 tion is however founded on a mistake, for Schneider's text re- 

 fers to the pelvic bones and not to the pectoral pedicle, his 

 words being " ventrales 3 (poll.) longa, sterno osseo, 3-tuber- 

 culato insidentes" As to the barbel, it may easily escape notice 

 unless looked for, being very short though thickish. George 

 Forster's sketches of the fish are mere outlines, and aid little 

 in supplying details omitted in the description. Indeed, when 

 one considers the many branches of natural history attended 

 to by the Forsters, and the extent of their collections, no sur- 

 prise will be excited on finding their notes occasionally very 

 brief. Cuvier goes on to say, that even if Forster's fish shall 

 be found hereafter to be the same with cirrhosus, this appel- 

 lation should remain, because neither maculatus nor mono- 

 pterygius are sufficiently distinctive. But M. Lesson's name 

 of Kouripoua appears to have the priority, and ought in jus- 

 tice to be adopted by those who consider Forster's fish to be a 

 distinct species. I think they are the same, and have there- 

 fore restored Forster's term of maculatus, being nearly synony- 

 mous with the maculosus of the first discoverer of the fish, 

 and having been given to the public contemporaneously with . 

 Schneider's unnecessary and indiscriminating designation of 

 monopterygius. The appellation of 6 Kouri-pooa' in the Poly- 

 nesian language seems to denote that the natives observe an 

 affinity either in form or habits between the Uranoscopes and 

 Synanceice, the Synanceia homda being called £ Ehohoo-pooa- 

 pooa' at Otaheite. 



The museum at Haslar contains a mounted Uranoscope 

 brought from New Zealand by Mr. J. M. Hamilton, Assistant- 

 surgeon of the Royal Navy, which I have no hesitation 

 in considering to be of the same species with Lesson's and 

 Forster's specimens. It corresponds with the figures of both, 

 and except in some of the redder and more delicate tints 

 which have faded, it agrees also with Solander's account of 



