68 
MEMOIRS OF TEE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM . 
not extending on the caudal fin, the tubes long and simple. Head almost wholly 
scaly, with rather long, obtusely pointed snout, the mucous system well developed. 
Mouth terminal, with moderate oblique cleft, the upper jaw projecting; pre- 
maxillaries forming the entire dentigerous border of the upper jaw, the maxillaries. 
exposed and dilated distally. Jaws with a pluriserial band of small cardiform 
teeth, the outer series much enlarged, widely set, and conical ; a patch of small 
teeth on the head of the vomer, and a band of even smaller ones on the palatines ; 
pterygoids and tongue smooth. Two moderate, widely separated nostrils on each 
side, the anterior tubular. Eyes small, anteromedian, lateral. Operele with a 
small, flat spine. Vertical fins naked, with the posterior rays increasingly 
crowded. One long dorsal fin, with viii to xiii 28 to 25 rays, the spinous portion 
much shorter than the soft, the spines short and weak, graduated. Caudal free 
and rounded. Anal similar to the dorsal, with iii 17 to 19 rays. Pectoral small, 
symmetrical, with 16 or 17 rays, the middle longest, inserted below the middle 
of the body. Ventral jugular, composed of a small spine and a single bifid ray. 
Gill-openings wide; gill-membranes separate, free from the isthmus; branehi- 
ostegals six; pseudobranch.hu present, glandular; gills four, a narrow slit behind 
the fourth ; gill-rakers in small number, short, stout, and spinulose ; pharyngeal 
bones separate, armed with well developed cardiform teeth ; air-bladder present, 
simple. Stomach crecal ; pyloric appendages in moderate number; intestinal canal 
straight. Premaxillary processes short; supraoecipital crest vestigial; coracoid 
dilated; scapula without foramen; pectoral arch attached to the skull by a 
simple posttemporal. 
An aberrant monotypic family of percoid fishes, holding an isolated 
position, and inhabiting the fresh waters of Northern Tasmania and South- 
Eastern Australia; it has not as yet been recorded west of the Torrens River, 
South Australia, but is included by Zietz* among the edible fishes of the Lower 
Murray, up which and its tributaries it ascends, even to its remote head waters 
in the Queensland Ranges, where it is now firmly established; here its general 
appearance and slippery nature have given rise to the persistent belief in the 
presence of an eel in our transmontane waters. 
GADOPSIS Richardson. 
Gadopsis Richardson, Zool. Erebus & Terror, ii, 3848, Ichth., p. 122; no description 
(m armor at a) ; Gunther, Brit. Mus. Catal. Fish., iv, 1862, p. 318; McCoy, Prodr. Zool. Vic., 
dec. iii, 3 879, p. 39; Ogilby, Edib. Fish. & Crust. N. S. Wales, 3893, p. 149 
Characters of the family. ( Gaelics , cod; oi/as, gen. oif/em, resemblance: 
from a superficial likeness to that fish.) 
The genus Gadopsis has had a somewhat varied experience as to its position 
in the system. Tts original author considered it “to belong to the Blennioid 
family. ” From thence it was removed by Gunther, who placed it at the head of 
* Trans. Roy. Soc. South Australia, xxvi, 1902, p. 267. 
