Zoology. '\ NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. IFishes. 



some fancied resemblance to a Cod, to wliicli it has no affinity and 

 little likeness. It is by for the largest of all our fresh-water fish, 

 and is in request for the table all the year round. It sometimes 

 reaches lOOlbs. in weight, and examj^les of 401bs. are common. It 

 feeds voraciously on fish and Crustacea ; twenty full-grown speci- 

 mens of the smaller INIurray Crayfish (Astacopsis bicarinatus) were 

 taken from the stomach of the specimen figured in our Plate 85, 

 which measured three feet four and a half inches in length. The 

 color varies consideral^ly, the very large specimens being greyish 

 with a slight, dull, greenish tinge above, but whitish on the belly; 

 the dusky spots l)eing very small and excessively numerous ; while 

 in the smaller specimens the spots are always much larger, and 

 frequently clustered in angular patches, as in our Plate 86 ; these 

 smaller specimens are more decidedly yellowish-olive in the ground 

 color. 



There is a very common opinion among the fish dealers and 

 other observers that there are two distinct species confounded 

 under the name of Murray Cod, the one with a narrow snout, 

 and the other with a broadly-rounded blunt one, and it is easy 

 to separate the two forms when a heap of the fish is sorted. 

 I am convinced, however, that the difference is sexual, and 

 that the two forms agree precisely in all the other proportions, 

 the number of fin-rays, and in the num])er of scales along the 

 lateral line and above and ])elow it, as well as in coloring. 

 The depth of the body I find also varies from 3 J in the large 

 to about J in the small examples in the total length. The length 

 of the orbit in the moderately large sj^ecimen (No. 1 of table of 

 measurements given below) is contained about 9 times in the 

 length of the head ; in the next (No. 2) 8 times ; in the next 

 (No. 3) 7J ; in the next (No. 4) 7 times ; in the smallest (No. 5) 

 about 5 times ; and in the largest (No. 6) it is contained about 

 lOiJ^ times ; bearing out the remark I have made, in relation 

 to other fish, that the proportionate size of the eye is always 

 larger in young or small individuals, and is gradually a less 

 fraction of the length of the head or body in the older or larger 

 individuals. 



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