FOOD AND FANCY FISHES. 285 



mullet, UpencHS porosns, C. & Val., being greatly esteemed, and realising a high price in the 

 Melbourne fish market. As many as half-a-dozen varieties of red mullet belonging to the genera 

 Upenoides, Mulloides, and Upeneus, have been recorded from Queensland waters, though none so 

 far appear to have been taken in sufficient quantities, or of sufficiently large size, to prove of com- 

 mercial value. This group of fishes, however, is one that demands resort to methods of capture 

 essentially distinct from those that have hitherto been practised on this coast-line, and the introduc- 

 tion of these would probably effect substantial additions to the existmg fish supply. 



The sea-bream family, Sparidae, already occupies an important position in connection with 

 the Brisbane fish market. It includes the celebrated schnapper Pagnisu nicolor, C. & Val., re- 

 garded by many as the finest food fish, excepting the Tasmanian trumpeter, inhabiting Australian 

 waters. Its capture in Queensland, however, has hitherto been accomplished chiefly by 

 private fishing parties, though it is, no doubt, a species which would well repay systematic 

 capture by professional fishermen, for public consumption. The most northern point on the 

 Queensland coast-line in which the true schnapper is caught in any quantity, is that of the 

 neighbourhoods of Flat- and Round-top Islands, off Mackay ; but it is also reported as occurring, 

 sparingly, in the vicinity of Bowen, Port Denison. At the last-named station the author has 

 taken a species of schnapper, Pagnts spinifer, illustrated by Plate XLIV., Fig. 2, which is new to 

 the Australian fish fauna, and better known as an Indian species. A third species of Pagrus, 

 decorated with bright blue spots, after the manner of the immature or so-called " Squire," 

 condition of the ordinary schnapper, has been likewise derived from this locality, and has also 

 been reported from Thursday Island. It would appear to be identical with Pagrus major, Temm., 

 hitherto associated only with the west coast of Australia. The common silver breams, or 

 " tarwhines," of the Sydney market are represented by three Queensland species. These are 

 Chrysophrys australis, Gth., C. sarba, Fsk., and C. Iiasta, BI. All are valuable food fishes, the two 

 first-named contributing extensively to the fish supply of Brisbane, while the third species, C. Iiasta, 

 is limited in its distribution to the estuaries and coast-line of the inter-tropical zone. 01 the black 

 breams, or sweeps proper, as they are called in the southern colonies, genus Girella, two species, 

 G. carbonaria, De V., and G. mcnfalis, De V., have been recorded from Moreton Bay, while a third 

 form, G. simplex, Rich., common to New South Wales and Victoria, has been taken near Murray 

 Island. " Black-fish " is the local name that has hitherto been chiefly applied to these bream in 

 Queensland. The members of the bream family referable to the genus Lethrinus, belong essentially 

 to the Indo-Pacific region ; they are most abundant in the north and north-eastern coast-line of 

 Queensland, being there represented by as many as twelve species, some of which attain to a 

 length of two or three feet. They all possess the characteristic "molar" dentition of the ordinary 

 sea breams, but are usually more gaily coloured, being variously ornamented with longitudinal 

 stripes or vertical streaks or spots. They are good table fish, readily taken with hook and line, 

 and might doubtless be captured in large quantities with the aid of set nets. One typical species, 



