402 
New Species of 
the more difficult by their often frequenting the almost inacces¬ 
sible and precipitous sides of gullies and ravines. Its food 
appears to consist principally of insects, especially those of the 
Coleopterous order, and Centipedes. Mr. Gould also found the 
remains of shells of snails in the gizzard, which he remarks is 
strong and muscular. The nest is placed either on the ledge of 
a projecting rock, at the base of a tree, or on the top of a stump, 
but always near the ground. 
The natives state that the eggs are two in number, and of a 
light colour, freckled with red .—Proceedings of the Zoological 
Society , 11th May, 1841. 
AUSTRALIAN FISH. 
At a Meeting of the Zoological Society, held on the 9th 
March, 1841 (James Whishaw, Esq., in the Chair), a paper 
by Dr. Richardson, on some new or little known fishes from 
the Australian seas, was read. The following is an abstract of 
this paper:— 
I. Cheilodactylus gibbosus, forma Cheilodactyli zonati , 
(A. e. capite brevi, ore parvulo , dentibus brevibus setaceis; 
dorso gibbo , spina quarta longissimd;) radiis pinna: dor¬ 
salis articulatis radios spinosos numero plus duplo exce- 
dentibus . 
Radii. P. 8-VI; D. 17-36; V. 1-5 ; A. 3-8; C. 
This species differs from the ordinary Cheilodactyli , and 
agrees with the Japanese species discovered by the naturalists 
who accompanied Admiral Krusenstern, in the body being very 
high in the pectoral region, and tapering away in a lengthened 
manner posteriorly; in the abruptly and steeply arched form 
of the spinous dorsal anteriorly, the smallness of the mouth, 
the slender teeth, and in hornlike protuberances on the fore 
part of the orbit, and also on the tip of the snout, the latter 
formea by the projecting shoulders of the maxillary bones. 
The Japanese species named zonatus in the ‘ Hist, des Poissons/ 
has only twenty-nine articulated rays in the dorsal, and differs 
in the distribution of its dark bands of colour, which in gib¬ 
bosus run as follows :—one obliquely backwards over the eye 
and operculum, another over the nape and tip of the gill-flap, 
meeting the former at the base of the pectoral; a third takes 
in the first three short dorsal spines, and tapers away on the 
side under the middle of the pectoral; while a fourth, pro¬ 
ceeding from a black patch which occupies the fifth and seven 
following spines, and keeping parallel to the base of the dorsal, 
runs along the summit of the back to the tail. In zonatus 
there are seven or eight dark stripes running obliquely back- 
