Caranx Georgianus, _Cuv. et Val._ Hist. des Poiss. tom. ix. p. 64.
FORM.—Of an oval compressed form, with the back elevated. Greatest
depth one-third of the entire length, caudal excluded: thickness not
half the depth: head one-fourth of the entire length, caudal
included. Profile ascending obliquely, and in nearly a straight
line, to meet the dorsal curve. Upper jaw a little the longer. The
maxillary, which is truncated and cut nearly square at its posterior
extremity, not quite reaches to beneath the anterior margin of the
orbit. In each jaw a row of about thirty-five teeth, which are
small, somewhat cylindrical, set regularly, nearly equal, and rather
blunt at the point; very little trace of any secondary row, simply
four or six smaller ones behind those in the middle of the upper
jaw, and perhaps in the lower also, but they are not very obvious. A
triangular patch of velutine teeth on the vomer, and a narrow band
of the same on each palatine; also on the tongue: these last,
however, very closely shorn. Eyes a little above the middle of the
cheek, but exactly half-way between the end of the snout and the
posterior margin of the opercle; their diameter one-fourth the
length of the head. Preopercle rounded at the angle; its limb
separated from the cheek by a slight but not very salient ridge.
Opercle with the notch at the upper part not very deep; the
obliquely descending margin straight.
The lateral line follows the curvature of the back until it arrives
beneath the middle of the second dorsal, at which point it becomes
straight, and the scales gradually pass into carinated spinous
laminæ. These laminæ, however, are very little developed
anteriorly to the last quarter of that fin; and even beneath the
end of it, where they are largest, they do not extend over more
than half the breadth of the tail, nor does their own breadth
exceed one-seventeenth of the greatest depth of the body. The
number of them is from twenty to twenty-five, according to the
point at which the reckoning commences, the transition from the
scales to the laminæ being very gradual. The pectorals are falcate
and sharp-pointed, and one-fourth of the entire length, caudal
included. The height of the anterior part of the dorsal is
contained two and a half times in the depth. The lobes of the
caudal are contained four times and three quarters in the entire
length.
D. 8—1/27; A. 2—1/24; C. 17, &c.; P. 20; V. 1/5.
Length 7 inches 6 lines.
COLOUR.—Not noticed in the recent state. The colour of the back and
upper part of the sides appears to have been bluish grey, with steel
and other reflections, and was probably very brilliant in the living
fish: belly silvery. No markings, except a conspicuous black spot on
the upper part of the opercle.
_A second specimen._—Differs in no respect from the above, excepting
in having one ray less in the second dorsal and anal fins.
Habitat, King George’s Sound, New Holland.
I entertain not the least doubt of this species being the _C.
Georgianus_ of Cuvier and Valenciennes; but as the notice of it in the
“Histoire des Poissons” is extremely brief, I have deemed it advisable
to annex a detailed description. Both Mr. Darwin’s specimens are from
King George’s Sound, where the species was first discovered by MM. Quoy
and Gaimard.