110 Transactions. — Zoology. 



The proper home of the luth is in the warmer parts of 

 the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Its enormous 

 paddles give it great swimming-powers, and it consequently 

 ventures far out to sea, and sometimes strays to very distant 

 localities. Specimens have been stranded on the coasts of 

 France and Holland, and one or two have reached England. 

 In the temperate parts of the Southern Hemisphere it has only 

 once been noticed — in 1862, when a half-grown specimen was 

 captured at Portland, on the coast of Victoria. Probably 

 both that and the one now under consideration have wandered 

 from the Polynesian islands, where it is said to be occasionally 

 seen, but never in large numbers. 



Aet. XIV. — On a Specimen of Sunfish captured at Poverty 



Bay. 



By Archdeacon W. L. Williams. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, 17th October, 1892.] 



It is now nearly three years since that a large specimen of 

 sunfish (Ortliagoriscus mola), the dimensions of which are 

 worth recording, was captured by some men who were work- 

 ing on the Gisborne breakwater. After it was safely landed 

 the fish was exhibited by its captors. I had not the good 

 fortune to see it myself ; but Dr. A. H. Williams, who saw 

 it, measured it carefully, and found that the length from 

 snout to tail was 9ft. 8in., and that the depth from tip to tip 

 of the fins was lift. 6in. It is much to be regretted that so 

 fine a specimen was not preserved in some way and placed in 

 one of our museums. 



The following account of the fish, and of its capture, was 

 given me by Mr. W. J. Fox : — 



" On the 12th December, 1889, as I was working on the 

 large crane on the breakwater, I observed what I took to be 

 the fin of a large shark appearing above the water about a 

 quarter of a mile east of the breakwater. I at once went, 

 with a companion, in a boat to the spot, taking some dyna- 

 mite with us; but the creature had disappeared. After a 

 while we discovered it lying on the bottom, on its side, in 

 about 10ft. of water, and I thought it might be a calf whale. 

 We dropped a charge of dynamite down to it, which, when it 

 exploded, must have stunned it, and turned it over. We 

 then returned to the breakwater to fetch a boat-hook. After 

 the explosion of another charge of dynamite the fish came to 

 the surface, and lay with one side of its head out of the water. 



