COLLECTION MKDK BY W . PA VILLE-KENT, F.L.S., F.Z.S.. ETC. 221 



Wishes of Australia, and more notably in an account of a 

 -collection of fish received by him from Port Darwin, and 

 ■described in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New 

 South Wales for the year 1878. Some two or three of the 

 smaller fish obtained in Cambridge Gulf would appear, however, 

 to present characters that do not, so far as I have been able to 

 .ascertain, coincide with those of any previously described species. 

 -One of these is a small form of a Tassel Fish, I'olynemu*, conspic- 

 uous for the number and great length of those filamentous 

 appendages developed from the hase of the pectoral fins, which 

 have gained for the genus its characteristic title. Among the six 

 Australian species hitherto recorded, the number of pectoral 

 .appendages ranges from four to six, and in none of these do they 

 ■extend in length beyond the base of the anal fin. In the form 

 now introduced there sre seven filamentous appendages developed 

 from the base of each pectoral fin, five of which may extend 

 backwards beyond the distal extremity of the caudal fin, and 

 this last named fin is moreover of remarkable length, equalling, 

 with the exception of the head, that of the entire body. The 

 colours of this fish in life are essentially brilliant, the general 

 ground tint of the body being yellow, shaded or sprinkled with 

 black on the dorsal surface ; the long caudal fin and the membra- 

 nous portions of the pectoral and the nutral fins are bright 

 orange, whi e the filamentous pectoral appendages are of an 

 intense vermilion. Several species of the genus I^lynernus having 

 seven pectoral filaments have been recorded from the East 

 Indian and Chinese Seas, and among these it most nearly 

 resembles the Paradise Tassel Fish, Pol//nemus paradiseus, of the 

 Ganges and the Indian coast line. In the brief description given 

 of that species in Gunther's Catalogue of Fishes, Vol. il., p. 320» 

 the ventral fins only are leferred to as being coloured yellow in 

 contra distinction to those of al ied species which are black. 

 That spc ies moreover would appear to be of considerable size, 

 several of the preserved examples in the Llritish Museum being 

 referred to as "stuffed." The total length of the largest example of 

 the form now introduced is only six inches, but it is in its mature 



