DISTRIBUTION AND GENERAL NOTES ON THE SPECIES 339 



Notothenia macrocephala Gunther. Norman (1937, pp. 89-90) has shown that there seems to be no 

 reason to doubt the identity of this species with examples from Kerguelen and New Zealand. It is one 

 of two Nototheniids that seem to have a truly circumpolar «/6-Antarctic distribution. The silvery 

 young seem to live pelagically for a much longer period than those of most other members of the 

 group, and this may have favoured wide dispersal of the species.^ A striking illustration of this was 

 afforded by the capture of nine specimens (up to 9 cm. long) at St. 63 in 48° 50' S : 53° 56' W, right 

 out in the open South Atlantic some 300 miles NE x N of the Falkland Islands. These specimens were 

 caught at the surface with a dip-net, and not by hand-lines as erroneously stated in Norman's report. 



We got no A'^. macrocephala in the trawl^the sizeable adults seem to be mainly littoral in their 

 habits — but some were captured with 'Other gear', and Mr Bennett secured numerous specimens 

 with seine and hand-lines in Port Stanley. Bennett's notes, quoted by Norman (loc. cit.), show that 

 the larger individuals are common inshore at the Falkland Islands, where they are known as 'yellow- 

 bellies ', and stay close inshore later in the year than most other Nototheniidae. He found them good 

 eating though they are rarely used as food. At the Falklands they attain a length of over a foot and 

 I lb. weight. The depth distribution shown in Fig. 42 refers to the larger individuals, taken only in 

 littoral waters, and excludes the pelagic young which (as we have seen) may at times be met with far 

 out at sea over oceanic depths. 



We obtained specimens of Nototheftia macrocephala as follows : 



63 9 (in dip-net) 222 i (in TNL) 



Port Stanley 8 ( + several not preserved, A. G. B. fo//.) 229 i (in NiooH) 



From Phillipps (1921, p. 123) we learn that in New Zealand this fish goes by the name of 'Maori 

 chief, but in Wellington, where a few were marketed in autumn, the fishermen know it as 'More- 

 pork'. The fish should not be confused with the hairy owl {Ninox novae-selandiae) or the Tasmanian 

 night-jar [Podargus ciivieri) that go by the same vernacular name. 



Notothenia microlepidota Hutton. We did not obtain any specimens of this species, which is, how- 

 ever, of special interest because Norman (1937, pp. 90-1) believed that some Patagonian specimens, 

 variously described, and authentic New Zealand ones, were identical. ' There is, thus, a second species 

 common to the Patagonian and Antipodes regions.' 



Dissostichtis eleginoides Smitt. This is the largest of the Patagonian Nototheniidae. Superficially it 

 bears a very strong resemblance to a hake, but Norman (1937, p. 92) found the skeletal relationship to 

 Notothenia very close. It seems to be a rare fish in the Patagonian region, and we captured nine 

 specimens only. Dissostichtis was always taken in the trawl, never in 'Other gear'. It occurred at 

 such widely divergent depths that the depth relations could not be expressed by the methods used for 

 other Nototheniiformes, and individual occurrences are plotted against depth in Fig. 42. The largest 

 specimen, which was 90 cm. long and weighed 7710 g. (nearly 17 lb.), was taken in 297 m. At 

 shallower depths the specimens showed regular increase in size with depth, ranging from a specimen 

 of 13 cm. in 84 m. to one of 33 cm. in 172 m., but two five-pounders (about 64 cm.) were taken m 

 one of the deepest hauls made (418 m.). It would seem that at most seasons only immature individuals 

 of this species are to be found on the shelf, the larger fish ranging the deep water beyond the edge. 

 They may migrate to shallower water to spawn, but we lack any direct evidence on the matter. Our 

 larger specimens showed a steady increase in ponderal index with increasing length, from about 07 

 at 47 cm. to a value exceeding unity for the largest fish caught: 



WS75 I WS97 I WS98 3 WS245 2 WSSjg 2 



1 It is quite probable that adequate search would reveal the presence of iV. macrocephala at Gough Island, the Crozets, 

 Marion and Prince Edward Islands, and perhaps even at St Paul's Island and New Amsterdam. Our knowledge of the fish 

 faunas of the isolated sub-Antarctic islands is deplorably fragmentary, especially in the Indian Ocean sector. 



