52 
ICUTIIVTOLOGY 
the last spine, but the sixth and seventh are much longer than 
the height of the body, and would not be contained more than 
twice and one-third in the length of the fish (without the 
caudal) ; the three last are much shorter, and the tenth is not 
longer than the fifth spine ; caudal not complete in my specimen, 
but seems rounded, it has twenty rays and a couple of short 
basilar ones on each side ; anal with three spines, the first the 
shortest, and the third the longest, they are rather slender and 
arched ; the soft portion is very large and high, of ten 
branched rays, which go on lengthening up to the sixth and 
seventh, which are the longest, and then they become shorter 
again ; as on the dorsal the prolongated rays are very long, and 
extend further than the end of the caudal ; ventral s inserted a 
little in front of the pectorals, having one long slender spine, 
and three elongated branched rays, the fins as long as the head; 
pectorals rather large, of eighteen rays. 
I have a single specimen, which is stuffed. The fishermen 
call this sort the devilfish, and say that when living it was of a 
brownish red. It appears to be very scarce ; its total length is 
thirteen inches. This genus is named in honour of the cele- 
brated zoologist, Ruppell, whose works on the animals of the 
Bed Sea are so well known. 
Nota. In my paper on the edible fishes of Victoria, in 
the Exhibition Essays, 1873, I stated by a lapsus calami 
that this fish was my Bleckeria Catafracta (Lacepedia). This 
mistake is easily seen by the few descriptive words which are 
contained in that paper. 
LABRICHTHYS PSITTACULA. 
Labr. Psittacula, Richard., Froc. Zool. SoC, 1840, p. 26. 
Tautoga Psittacula, Richard., Ereb. and Terror, Fishes, 
p. 129. 
Labrichthys Psittacula, Gunther. Gatal. vol. iv., p. 114, 
pi. 59, fig. 7. 
This is the only sort of this genus that I have yet been able 
to put under one of the described species. 
The only specimen I have obtained is in a dried state, but 
shows that it has been of a general red colour, with broad 
