384 OX THE CLTJPEIDiE OF AUSTRALIA. 



species is very subject to variety, and it becomes consequently 

 difficult to find good definitions. The genus, however, is very 

 distinct and well defined. Count Castlenau has added the name 

 of this Fish to his list of Port Jackson Fishes, but it certainly 

 must be a very rare visitant. It is, however, common enough 

 on the Northern Coasts, and I have had specimens from Fiji, 

 always found in fresh water. This is the most prized of all the 

 Herring tribe for the excellence of its flavour, and in many parts 

 of India it is domesticated and kept in large tanks for the use of 

 the wealthier inhabitants. Its length is about two feet. If a 

 little of the enterprise exhibited in the efforts that have been 

 made to introduce the Salmon into our rivers, was expended upon 

 the cultivation of this Fish in our coast rivers north of the 

 Clarance, the result, 1 venture to say, would be much more 

 satisfactory. 



In the foregoing pages I have enumerated all the species of 

 Clupeidm which I know, either of my own knowledge or on the 

 authority of Count Castlenau. to have been found in Australian 

 waters, but it must not be supposed that the list is likely to be 

 complete or nearly so. The Fishes of the West Coast are very 

 little known, and many discoveries are likely yet to be made on 

 the Northern, but pjrobably we may accept the above list as 

 enumerating with some correctness the species of the Southern 

 and Eastern Coasts. 



Of the value of some of these Fishes in an economic point of 

 view, I have only a very few remarks to make. It is certain 

 that so far as the immediate vicinity of Sydney is concerned, the 

 two species — Glupea sag ax and Ckipea sundaica — annually in the 

 winter season pass the Heads, proceeding in a northerly direction 

 in enormous shoals, and there is reason to believe that two other 

 species — Glupea hypselosoma and ffirumeus Jachsoniensis — pass also 

 in large shoals about the same period of the year. That these 

 Fishes also are of great value as food, and that they might be 



