174 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEU.M. 



Scales^ decidaous, largest on the sides, becoming smaller backwards. 

 Ventral scutes keeled, but not prominent ; about nineteen before the 

 ventral fins, and about fifteen more to the vent. Elongate scales cover the 

 bases of the dorsal, anal, pectoral and ventral fins ; two enlarged, leaf-like 

 scales on each side of the caudal. 



Origin of the dorsal fin a little nearer the snout than the last ray is to 

 the hypural joint. Fourth and fifth dorsal rays longest, slightly longer than 

 the base of the fin ; the others decrease rapidly backwards, and the mar- 

 gin of the fin is slightly concave. Venti'als inserted below or a little 

 behind the middle of the dorsal. Pectoral inserted below the angle of 

 the suboperculum, its upper rays longest, reaching about three-fourths 

 of its distance from the vertical of the first dorsal ray. Third and fourth 

 anal rays longest, the others deci'easing backwards to the penultimate 

 which, with the last, is enlarged. Caudal deeply fprked. 



Colour. — Dark blue above, changing abruptly into the silver of the 

 sides. Each scale of the back with a small blackish basal spot, and a row 

 of round blackish spots along the junction of the blue with the silver. 

 Tips of jaws blackish. Eye silvery. Dorsal and caudal fins tipped with 

 blackish dots. 



Described from six specimens taken from a large shoal which entered 

 Botany Bay in the middle of July, 1917. They were secured at 

 Sandringham by Mr. J. H. Wright, and are of about equal size. The 

 specimen figured is 190 mm. long. 



Ocimrrence. — Pilchards occur in vast shoals on the coast of New South 

 Wales in the colder months, but veiy little definite information relative 

 to their habits and migrations is available. The following remarks are 

 collected from various papers published in Victoi'ia, New South Wales and 

 New Zealand. 



McCoy^ recorded the occun-ence of Pilchards in Hobsons Ba}', Victoria, 

 in August, 1864-1866. They arrived in such countless numbers in the 

 latter year, that carts were filled with them by simply dipping them out 

 of the sea with large baskets. Hundreds of tons of the fish were sent to 

 the inland Victorian markets, and they were sold in Melbourne for sevei'al 

 weeks by the bucket-full for a few pence. Captains of ships entering 

 Hobson's Bay, reported having passed through shoals of Pilchards for 

 miles. Ogilby (1893) noted that Pilchards annually pass along the New 

 South Wales coast in incredible multitudes. Macleay (1879) ascertained 

 from the fishermen that their annual visit to the New South Wales coast 

 was about June and July, when enormous shoals were generally observed 

 one to three miles from the land, and migrating northwards. According 

 to Stead (1908) shoals of mature Pilchards, nine to ten inches long, are 

 usually making northwai'd along the New South Wales coast in September, 

 and small bodies of them are often found among Mackerel of equal size 

 and vice versn. 



The Pilchard is equally abundant in New Zealand waters. Artliur 

 (1883) records that they occur all the year round at Queen Charlotte 

 Sound, but only enter the shallower bays during winter. They prefer 



' Scales described by Cockerell — Mem. Qld. Mus., iii.. 1915, p. 36. 

 2 McCoy— Intercolonial Exhibition Essays, 1866-1867, p. 319. 



