OCR Text |
Show 540 MR. G. A. BOULENGER ON [D The examples from which this species is described measure respectively 25*10, 26*10, and 28*30 inches, and were all taken m Port Jackson, where this species is locally known as the "Drummer I have never seen a small specimen of this fish. Breeding : only one, tbe largest of m y specimens, showed any signs of breeding ; this was a male with the milt but little developed ; all three were taken during the month of August. As food: not held in any estimation, and commanding no sale in the market, nevertheless it is, in m y opinion, quite equal to the other herbivorous Sparoids. Habits : in these it is a true rock-fish, dwelling in the crevices and indentations of our rocky shores, where it finds abundant food and shelter ; it is not given to roaming, and is only taken by the trammel, one end of which is attached to the shore, against which the mesh must actually lie, or else the fish would assuredly pass inside, whence it happens that this species is almost always caught within a few feet of the shore. Note.-From Dr. Ramsay's M S . notes on Australian Fishes, I find that, so far back as 1881, he noticed these differences with regard to the dentition, but never published any communication thereon. 5. O n the South-African Tortoises allied to Testudo geometrica. By G. A. B O U L E N G E R. [Received November 2, 1886.] (Plates LVII. & LVIII.) Upon the suggestion of the Rev. Mr. Fisk, of Cape Town, who has enriched the Society's Menagerie with so many interesting Reptiles, I have undertaken a reexamination of the South-African Tortoises allied to Testudo geometrica, and am able to distinguish as many as seven well-marked species, of which the diagnoses follow. The specimens named T. trimeni, after the Director of the South- African Museum, and T. fiski, were lately exhibited in the Society's Gardens, and were unrepresented in the Natural History Museum. That named T. smithi, after the author of the ' Illustrations of South-African Zoology,' is established on a specimen erroneously referred by Gray to T. verreauxii. The true T. verreauxii being still unrepresented in our collections, its diagnosis is compiled from Smith's description and figure. 1 It shares the name with Girella elevata, Macleay, and Pachymetopon grande, Giinth. In the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History' for November 1886, Dr. Giinther described Pimelepterus sydncyanus, n. sp., from Port Jackson, and suggested that Pachymetopon grande (Cat. Austr. Fish. i. p. 106) may be Pimelepterus fuscus, Laeepede, and that Pachymetopon squamosum, Macleay and Alleyne (Proc. Linn. N. S. Wales, i. p. 275, pi. ix. f. 1), may be Pimelepterus cincrasccns, Forsk., or P. tahmel, Riippell. |