BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 71 



that, to any one who knows the watei's, the tish from any given 

 stream may be selected at a glance from those of a dozen other 

 streams, but no one now-a-days would venture to assert that they 

 were of different species, even were it not well known that on 

 being transferred from one stream to another the colonists soon 

 assume the characteristics of the local race.* These variations 

 are attributable (in both genera, Oalaxias and Salmo) to similar 

 local causes, such as the depth, stillness or rapidity of the water, 

 the quality and the supply of food, the character of the bottom, 

 the composition of the water, &lc.; indeed as to the latter trout 

 taken from streams fed from limestone springs are as different 

 from those residing in waters which have their origin in peat 

 mosses as G'a/axias tnittaceus is from G. alteniiahcs. 



As to the atiinities of the species, it is useless in the present 

 state of our knowledge to attempt any generalisation, j^nd it is 

 only by obtaining a series of specimens from the localities whence 

 they were originally described that such species as Castelnau's 

 and (in a less degree) Macleay's can be with certainty identified; 

 nevertheless the following corrections and suggestions may be of 

 use : — - 



Galaxias olidu^, Giinth., doubtfully attributed by that author 

 to Queensland, proves to be a New Zealand species, and must be 

 erased from the number of Australian fishes. 



Galaxias ivaterhousei, Kreff't, is a variety of G. attenuatas 

 according to Klunzinger, as is also G. ohlusus, Klunz. (Sitzb. Ak. 

 Wiss. Wien, 1879, Ixxx. i. p. 412). I mention this latter fact 

 because Lucas includes both attenuatus and obtiisus in his 

 "Census of Victorian Fishes, 1889 ";t although ^Klunzinger had 

 himself pointed out his own error (^.c), while he omits hnUlacHihs 

 which that author had received from " Port Phillip." G. 

 nchomburg/iii, Peters, and G. hai/i, R. and O. are possibly varieties 

 of 'Waterlioiisei. 



This does not apply with equal force to the anadromous Saljiioiiids. 

 t Proc. Ejy. 8oc. Vic. 1889, pp. 15-47. 



