68 
RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 
B. Scales minute; branchiostegals six or seven. (Schedophilus) 
a . Lateral line smooth; ventral fins with five soft rays, inserted 
in front of the base of the pectorals 8. medusophagus. 
C. Scales absent; branchiostegals six (Icosteus). 
a . Lateral line armed with groups of small spines ; ventral 
fins with four soft rays, inserted behind the base of the 
pectorals I- enigmaticus. 
In the above synopsis I have been obliged to place S. bertheloti 
along with 8. lockingtoni and S. maculatus^ because of the com- 
paratively large size of the scales — as shown in Dr. Steindachner’s 
figure — in comparison with those of 8. medusophagus , as pourtrayed 
in Dr. Gunther’s figure, and as were present, if my memory serve 
me, in my Irish example of that species. 
Schedophilus maculatus. 
Schedophilus maculatus , Gnth. Catal. Fish. ii. p. 412, 1860, and 
Journ. Mus. Godeffr. Fisch. p. 148, 1876. 
Schedophilus marmoratus , Kner, SB. Ak. Wien, liv. p. 366, 
1866. 
B. vii. D. 9/27. A. 3/23. V. 1/5. P.19. 0.17. L. lat. 105. 
L. tr. 22/47. 
Length of head equal to its height at the hinder margin of the 
orbit, and 3*33 in the total length (without caudal) ; height of body 
2*20 in the same. Eye large, with the supraorbital ridge well de- 
veloped and overhanging, its diameter 3*10 in the length of the 
head, and equal to the interorbital space, which is almost flat; snout 
very short and obtuse, its length 1*50 in the diameter of the eye. 
Jaws equal : cleft of mouth moderate and oblique, the maxilla 
reaching to the vertical from the middle of the eye. Upper 
profile of the head rising almost vertically from the premaxillaries, 
thence sloping to the occiput, which, with the nape, is strongly 
convex, and compressed into a moderately sharp ridge. Both 
limbs of the preopercle armed with strong spines, those at the 
angle being the longest, and having their extreme tips curved 
upwards ; those on the vertical limb straight, but directed 
dorsal ly : sub and interopercles spiniferous, the spines of the 
latter more strongly developed. Body oblong-ovate, and strongly 
compressed. A single series of small, rather distant, hooked 
teeth in the jaws. The dorsal fin commences above the margin 
of the bony opercle ; its nine anterior rays are distinctly spinous; 
the last the highest, a little higher than the diameter of the eye ; 
beyond the spinous portion the rays increase gradually in height 
to the middle of the fin, from whence they descend as gradually 
to the last, which is five sixths of the ninth spine, the outer 
