582 REMARKS ON THK TRACHICIITIIYS OF PORT JACKSON. 



In the Traus. N. Zeal. Inst., vii., p. 245, Dr. Hector describes 

 a New Zealand form under the name of Trachichthys intermedius, 

 which possesses ten ventral plates, and the height of whose body 

 is about 2-50 in the length, without caudal. This specimen, 

 therefore, completes the chain of gradation between the high- 

 bodied T. jacksoniensis, and the long-bodied T. elongations, and 

 leaves me no choice but to consider all these as forms of the same 

 species, which must of course be known as Trachichthys austraUs. 



Dr. Giinther says that T. elongatus diffei^s from T. australis in 

 form as much as a Dace from a Crucian Carp ; perhaps if we were 

 to substitute Prussian Carp for Dace we would have a more 

 parallel case, yet none would now-a-days think of separating 

 Garassius gihelio, (or even G. ohlongus) from G. vulgaris ; nor, do 

 I think, that the forms of Trachichthys australis can be separated. 



