Gibson. — On New Zealand Whitebait. 311 



Art. XXXVI. — Notes on the Neiv Zealand Whitebait. 



By E. Gibson. 

 Communicated by Sir J. Hector. 

 [Bead before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 18th November, 1902.] 

 Hearing that the curator of the Westland Acclimatisation 

 Society had forwarded specimens of whitebait and ova for 

 discussion at the institute, I am also forwarding specimens 

 to see how they tally with other experience. 



I have heard conflicting stories as to what whitebait really 

 is. Some say they have kept them till they have grown into 

 mullet, and as I was curious to see how many different kinds 

 of fishes could be got out of the whitebait I thought to try 

 for myself, so I got some and put them into a wooden box, 

 but they died off. That was in 1890. 



The next year I tried another lot, and this time I put them 

 in glass jars and kept them until the middle of January, when 

 on a hot day I forgot to shade them, and on coming home at 

 night I found them all dead. I then made a concrete tank to 

 have ready for next year, and when the season came round I 

 got another supply and put them in the tank, and kept them 

 well supplied with creek-water from a swamp. They got on 

 fine until about August of the next year, when they died. I 

 noticed that they were bad with a fungus, so I gave it up. 



Next year, as the tank was there, I tried again ; but this 

 time the idea struck me that, as the whitebait comes out of 

 the salt water, the old fish must go into the sea again to 

 spawn, so when the season came round I gradually changed 

 the water till in August and September they were in all sea- 

 water. Then I changed the water again till October, and 

 they were back agam into fresh water. In this manner they 

 throve well, and I kept them, and next season changed the 

 water to salt again, and then back to fresh the third year, 

 but they still remained the same. They are what we call 

 " cowfish " or " inanga." I send three samples. The second- 

 sized one in the spirits is after it came through the first 

 sea-bath, and getting on for two years old. The largest one is 

 after the next year's salt bath. The smallest one was put in 

 spirits the following season. You will observe that they have 

 have all come out brindled when immersed in spirits. 



I hope this will be of some interest to the Wellington 

 Philosophical Society. 



Note. — Some time ago I forwarded to you some whitebait 

 which you thought differed from those forwarded by Mr. A. J. 

 MacKenzie. There is a little fish that comes up at the end of 

 the whitebait season. They come for two or three days, and 

 that finishes the season. They came up last season in 

 millions, and are about fin. long and F s ^in. deep. 



