Hector. — On New Zealand Whitebait. 315 



greedily bite at the small red worm, which is only found under 

 dry stock droppings ; the common garden worm has never 

 tempted one." 



As it is very probable that by many observers the large- 

 sized smelt (Betropinna) , which we shall find is a fish common 

 to both fresh and salt water, is frequently mistaken for the 

 upokororo (perhaps in Australia as well as this colony), the 

 question is one that still requires further investigation ; and 

 it will be a most interesting fact, if it can be established, that 

 this fish, which is so universally distributed in New Zealand, 

 and has close allies in South America and Australia, cannot 

 survive in sea-water. Mr. Travers observed this fish in the 

 Maitai Eiver in the early part of October, and I have speci- 

 mens from the Hutt Eiver, full of spawn, obtained in the 

 month of January ; while on the West Coast they are said 

 to be caught several months later in the season, and even in 

 winter. 



The upokororo is readily distinguished from the smelt 

 (which is the only other fish in our streams with a fleshy 

 second dorsal lobe) by its small tumid mouth, shorter lower 

 jaws, and minute teeth closely placed together like a comb 

 round the jaws. They vary very much in richness of colour, 

 from a general silvery hue and brownish on the back, while 

 others are dark speckled brown on back, and rich yellow, 

 almost golden in tint, on the belly. 



The Smelt. 



This delicate little fish, which belongs to the true 

 Salmonida, was first described by Sir John Richardson 

 from specimens which were obtained at the Bay of Islands 

 with a net, and therefore, I infer, in the salt water; but it 

 is, at certain seasons, one of the most common of our fresh- 

 water fishes. In my former paper on the New Zealand Sal- 

 monoids* I distinguished two species of the smelt, the inanga 

 and the proper smelt, which have been again united by 

 Captain Hutton under the original species, Betropinna 

 richardsoni. I am still, however, inclined to maintain that 

 B. osmeioides should be recognised as a distinct form until 

 more definite proof can be adduced that it is merely a different 

 stage in the growth of the first-described species. 



My first acquaintance with these fish was in 1863, at the 

 mouth of the Kotuku River, on the west coast of Otago, 

 where, in the month of September, both kinds were obtained, 

 the larger variety (B. osmeroides) following the flood tide in 

 numerous shoals into all the little streams to which the 

 brackish water penetrated, leaping out of the water in a very 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. iii., p. 133, pi. xviii., xix. 



