286 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Orthagoriscus mola. 



lu May last the Wanganui Museum was fortunate to secure 

 an unusually large specimen of the sun-fish {Orthagoriscus 

 mola). I received a telegram from Mr. Wilson Craig, of Napier, 

 kindly telling me that a sun-fish had been captured in their 

 inner harbour, and that he had purchased it for us. Mr. Charles 

 Smith (who is one of the earliest members of this learned 

 Society, and an indefatigable worker in the interests of our 

 Museum) at once joined me and we started for our prize. We 

 reached the Western Spit, Napier, early on Tuesday, the 5th 

 of May, and found that the fish had been dead a week. The 

 captors informed us the monster was seen to enter the inner 

 harbour on the flood-tide near high- water. While it was in 

 the deeper parts of the harbour little else was seen than the 

 top of the upper fin, causing many to imagine it was either a 

 very large shark or a small whale. Nearing Petane Bridge its 

 progress was stopped, the lower fin touching ground in the 

 more shallow water, causing the fish to lose its ujDright posi- 

 tion ; but, after much flapping of the huge upper fin, the strong 

 tide forced the creature between the piles of the bridge, even- 

 tually stranding it about a mile further on. The spectators 

 watched with great interest, and many were the opinions as to 

 what the animal really was. A crew of Maoris were the first 

 to attempt capture, but on near approach the wild movements 

 of the upper fin caused so much fear that they beat a retreat. 

 Two fishermen of the name of Boyd were the next to attack, 

 and they killed the fish after much stabbing with manuka 

 poles, i do not think I ever saw a specimen se mutilated. 

 Every one with a pocket-knife seems to have hacked at it, and 

 one piece of the side, weighing about 2c wt., was found fully a 

 quarter of a mile up the beach. Even mementoes of the mon- 

 ster were taken, one woman getting a pectoral fin to dry for a 

 fire-screen ; and square pieces were cut out of the skin, in the 

 same way as one sees a grocer cut a cheese for tasting. After 

 the viscera w'ere removed, and the 2cwt. piece mentioned above, 

 the fish was taken to the weighbridge, and scaled 37cwt. ; so 

 that, had it been weighed when perfect, there is little doubt 

 that it would have exceeded 2 tons. Its measurements as it 

 lay on the beach were — Depth from tip to tip of fins, 12ft. 7in. ; 

 greatest length, 9ft. Sin. ; greatest thickness, as near as I 

 could tell, 1ft. Gin. The eyeball was 4fin. in diameter, the iris 

 being silvery blue, with darker blue and black markings. The 

 colour of the skin when we saw it was grey, the fins being 

 almost black; belly lighter grey. The fishermen said that the 

 colour had not altered much, for when caught " it was a sort 

 of dirty blacklead colour all over." There certainly were none 

 of the reds mentioned by Couch ; — possibly with age the red 

 <;oIour is lost. The men told us of the vast quantities of internal 



