THE AUSTRALIAN MINNOWS. 49 



captured by means of hook and line. When hooked it is 

 a good fighter. It is of a very savage nature, and its jaws 

 are well-armed with sharp teeth. 



The colour of this species when fresh is a bright green. 

 When the fish is taken from the water, however, this colour 

 quickly fades to a yellowish brown, with darker spots. 



The Green Eel has even a greater geographical distri- 

 bution than the Silver Eel. 



It attains a length of nearly 3 feet. 



THE AUSTRALIAN MINNOWS. 



( Family : Galaxudce. ) 



THE members of this family are small, highly-voracious, 

 Trout-like fishes, inhabiting streams in the Southern Hemis- 

 phere of the world only ; the greatest number of species being 

 found in the waters of the southern half of Australia and 

 New Zealand. Though they are small, some of them being 

 even tiny, many of them are very prettily-marked and 

 spotted, and this, coupled with their activity in the water 



Fig. 16. TASMANIAN MINNOW (Galaxias truttaceus). 



and their habit of swimming and leaping at the surface, has 

 given rise to the name of Mountain Trout, which is so often 

 applied to them. They really take the place of the Salmon- 

 family in our waters ; only one tiny species of true Salmonoid 

 the Australian Smelt occurring here. It is highly pro- 

 bable that these fishes were originally developed from an 

 offshoot of the Salmon-family, in the process of adaptation, 



E 



