316 Transactions. — Zoology. 



lively fashion — the Maoris catching them as the tide fell by 

 closing weirs made of flax net across the small creeks. Their 

 length was from 4 in. to 7 in., and they took bait voraciously. 



The smaller fish (B. richardsoni), averaging 3 in. to 4 in. 

 in length, on the other hand, chiefly appeared round the sides 

 of the vessel in swarms at ebb tide, when the water was quite 

 fresh, and were caught with bag nets. 



Later in the season, during the month of November, the 

 same fish was found in quantities in the Kakapo Lake, where 

 the water is always quite fresh ; but along with the smaller 

 ones were many of larger size, averaging 4 in. in length, and 

 having the appearance of adult fish, without showing any of 

 their characters. 



In the Blackwater, which is a tributary of the Buller 

 River, twenty miles from the sea, a fish which answers to 

 B. osmeroidcs is abundant from February till June, and is 

 caught in large quantities with a net at nightfall ; but the 

 smaller fish, which was described by me as the whitebait, 

 with a silver line on the sides, arrives in October in closely 

 packed shoals, that advance steadily up stream against the 

 rapids. 



Captain Hutton states that in the Waikato these fish go 

 down to the sea to spawn in April, and that the young fish 

 return again in October ; but among the specimens he col- 

 lected both forms can be distinguished, although some speci- 

 mens of each are of equal size. 



In a collection of fishes obtained from Taupo Lake I also 

 find a small-sized form of the smelt, which, though differing 

 in some respects from those found in the Waikato, has de- 

 cidedly the character of B. osmeroides . 



Specimens caught sixteen miles up the Wanganui Eiver in 

 the month of November also have the character of B. osme- 

 roides. They are 5 in. in length, and full of roe. 



In the collections exhibited, which comprise all the speci- 

 mens in the Museum, it is always easy to distinguish the 

 fish which answers to Richardson's very minute description. 

 They are of all sizes up to 4 in., at which size I consider they 

 are adult, having a rather deep-shaped body, yellow colour 

 with a silver streak on the side, a short conical snout, and 

 very large eye. In the largest specimens the length of the 

 body is less than four times that of the head, and less than 

 five times the height of the body. The cleft of the mouth 

 is small, and the teeth are very minute. The form of the 

 stomach corresponds with Richardson's description, being 

 like a fleshy tube, with a bend dividing it into an oesophageal 

 and pyloric branch. 



On the other hand, the specimens of B. osmeroides have the 

 external appearance of a true English smelt, the body being 



