Waite. -Notes on yew Zealand Fishes. 217 



are less than half this lengt.h, producing a rounded outline to the fin. The 

 anal spines are short, the third longest ; the fin is shorter than the soft 

 dorsal, and terminates nearer the caudal ; the rays of both fins have a deep 

 scaly base. The pectoral is inserted in advance of the opercular margin ; 

 its fifth, or longest, ray extends to beneath the ba e of the seventh dorsal 

 spine : the lower margin of the fin is rounded. The ventral is short, one- 

 third the length of the head ; its spine is inserted a little in front of the 

 origin of the pectoral, being less than half the height of th'^ first ray, to 

 which it is closely adpressed. The caudal is slightly emarginate, and its 

 peduncle is strongly compressed and deep, its height equal to its length 

 behind the anal. 



Scales. — The whole of the head, opercles, maxilla, and body covered with 

 small scales, roughened on their free edges with minute denticles. The 

 lateral line arises behind the opercle, has an txtremely low curve over the 

 pectoral, and follows the dorsal profile to beneath the termination of the 

 fin, whence it attains the base of the caudal along the middle of the peduncle. 



Colours. — The colour is almost uniform grey, slightly darker above ; 

 membrane of pectoral dark grey, of other fins dusky. 



Length, 1,195 mm. ; weight, disembowelled, 611b. 



The sum of these characters leads me to associate the species with the 

 Atlantic wreck-fish (Polyprion americamis Bloch and Schneider).* This fish 

 is not uncommon in deep water off the coast of Europe, from Norway to the 

 Mediterranean ; it is also known from the Cape of Good Hope, and has been 

 identified from Madeira and the Southern Indian Ocean. A single example 

 has been recorded from North American waters, and New Zealand is now 

 added to the known habitat. The fish has long been known here under the 

 name of " bass," but Mr. L. F. Ayson, Cliief Inspector of Fisheries for the 

 Dominion, tells me that it was always regarded as a groper [Polyprion 

 oxygeneios) which attained to greater size in the deep waters. It has been 

 taken 1801b. in weight, and a specimen 1721b. is illustrated on "he accom- 

 panying plate, reproduced from a photograph secured by the kind offices of 

 Mr. Ayson. It is interesting to find the name " bass " applied to the fish 

 here, for stone-bass is one of the names current for the species in British 

 waters. Young specimens are described as having the ridges of the head, 

 the opercles, and the spines of the fins serrate, but the asperities are lost 

 as the fish grows, those of the fin-spines being replaced by striae, and the 

 latter condition is found in the specimen above described. The most 

 obvious discrepancy between the characters of my fish and the descriptions 

 consulted is to be found in the gill-rakers : they are described as being as 

 long as the gill-fringes, whereas in the Kaikoura example the gill-rakers are 

 replaced by low spinous bosses. Perhaps such are characters of the larger 

 specimens. 



The bass is caught off the New Zealand coast by the line fishermen when 

 angling for groper or hapuka, and the catch is tolerably assured when the 

 100-fathom line is reached, though the fish may be hooked in 80 fathoms. 

 The food does not appear to be known, for, as usual with fishes drawn from 

 deep water, the stomach is everted through the mouth, and consequently 

 emptied. To its near ally little comes amiss, the capacious mouth being 

 capable of receiving almost anything in the way of food, and I have ex- 

 tracted a full-grown elephant-fish {Callorhynchiis milii), containing two eggs 



* Bloch and Schneider, Syst. Ichth., 1801, p. 205. 



