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Atherinidæ.

Body more or less elongate, subcylindrical, covered with scales of moderate size; lateral line indistinct. Cleft of the mouth of moderate width, with the dentition feeble. Eye lateral, well developed. Gill-opening wide; four gills; pseudobranchiæ; five or six branchiostegals. Two dorsal fins; the spines of the first feeble; the second of moderate length; anal like the soft dorsal, or rather longer. Ventral fins abdominal, with one spine and five rays. Vertebras very numerous in the caudal and abdominal portions.

Carnivorous fishes inhabiting the seas of the temperate and tropical regions; several species entering or living in fresh water.

Atherina hepsetoides. Tasmanian coast.

——microstoma. Tasmanian coast.

——presbyteroides. Tasmanian coast.

——pinguis. Port Jackson.

——endrachtensis. South-west coast.

——pauciradiata. North-west coast.

Atherinichthys jacksoniana. Port Jackson.——nigrans. Northern rivers.