Hbctob. — On Netv Zealand Whitebait 313 



Upokcroro. 



This is the native name of the grayling (Prototroctes oxy- 

 rhynchus), a fish that has been long familiar to the settlers in 

 certain districts, but which does not appear to have been 

 obtained by any of the earlier collectors of the fishes of New 

 Zealand, and remained undescribed till last year (1869), when 

 specimens were forwarded by the Westland Naturalists' So- 

 ciety to Mr. Frank Buckland, who eventually requested Dr. 

 Giinther's opinion about them. He recognised it to be a 

 closely allied species to a fish from the fresh waters of Aus- 

 tralia, discovered in 186'2, and which he had placed in the 

 same family with a salmonoid fish (Haplochiton) that in- 

 habits the cold fresh waters of Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland 

 Islands, and the southern parts of the American Continent. 



Kespecting the relationship of these genera to each other, 

 Dr. Gunther states that the Australian and New Zealand fish 

 stand in the same relation to those in South America as the 

 genus Coregomis (of which the whitefish of the American 

 lakes and the vendace of Scotland are examples) does to the 

 true salmon, and that, " however the southern Haplochitonidce 

 may differ from the Salmonidce in the structure of the jaws 

 and intestines, it is a most remarkable fact that the fresh 

 waters of the Southern Hemisphere are inhabited by two 

 genera with adipose fins so extremely similar in outward 

 -appearance to the northern Salmonoids."* 



In ignorance of Dr. Giinther's researches, I had pre- 

 viously f described the upokororo from specimens obtained in 

 the Hutt River in January, 1870, and made the mistake of 

 placing it in the only genus of salmonoid fishes then known 

 to occur in New Zealand, and which is not found elsewhere 

 (Betropinna) . 



With reference to the Australian congener of the upoko- 

 roro, Professor McCoy remarks, " The Yarra Yarra and some 

 other of the rivers near the southern coast contain in great 

 abundance a beautiful and active fish, excellent for the table, 

 and affording capital sport to the angler. By ichthyologists 

 following the classification of Cuvier it would be referred to 

 the Salmonidce, the adipose second dorsal fin being well 

 marked, and so much does it resemble the grayling in the 

 cucumber smell when caught, in general appearance, habits, 

 mode of rising to fly, and playing, as well as in flavour, 

 that anglers are now in the habit of calling it ' the Austra- 

 lian grayling.' Its close resemblance in food and habits to 

 the true Salmonidce helped the acclimatisation society to 

 argue that certain of our rivers would serve for the experiment 



* " Proceedings Zoological Society," London, 10th March, 1870. 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. iii., p. 136 ; Ann. Nat. Hist. 1867 (Neochanna). 



