FOOD AND FANCY FISHES. 289 



fastened. In place of a hook, a nail is frequently driven through the wood at an acute angle ; 

 and bait in the form of a piece of scarlet cloth or fresh hide may be added, but is not essential. 

 At Warrnambool, on the Victorian coast, the half-grown fish, about two feet long, are most 

 extensively captured with the ordinary spoon-bait. In either instance the apparatus may be either 

 trailed through the water by a long line, or, as is more general, attached by a yard or so of line to 

 a staff five or six feet in length, by means of which the fish, immediately they seize the hook, 

 are lifted bodily out of the water over the sides of the boat. A Queensland fish, locally known 

 by the name of barracuta, is, as hereafter shown, a sea-pike belonging to the genus Sphyraena. 



The trevallies proper are included with the scads, or horse-mackerels, in the family of the 

 Carangidse. The typical genus Caranx embraces several very important commercial species. The 

 silver trevally, Caranx Georgianus, C. & VaL, of the southern colonies, grows to a weight of from 10 to 

 12 lb., and undoubtedly represents one of the most delicate and finest-flavoured fish in Australian 

 waters. An allied species, Caranx nobilis, Mel., represented by Plate XLVII., Fig. 3, obtained from 

 Moreton Bay and throughout the eastern coast-line, is commonly known to fishermen as the white 

 trevally. It grows to a length of two feet or more. No less than twelve other species of the same 

 genus are recorded from Queensland waters, a large proportion of them pertaining to the northern 

 or inter-tropical coast-line. The only type among these that appears, so far, to have received a popu- 

 lar title, is the so-called diamond fish, Caranx galtiis, L., that is met with in some abundance north- 

 wards from Port Denison and is very delicate eating. A coloured representation of this and also 

 of another form, Caranx radiatiis, common throughout the Barrier region, remarkable for the fringe- 

 like development of its fin rays, is given in Chromo plate XVI., Figs, i & 2. The trevally group, 

 from a commercial and gastronomic point of view, has not yet received the attention which it 

 worthily commands. Two forms closely allied to the genus Caranx are Chorinemus toloo, C. & Val., 

 and C. lysan, Forsk., the latter from the district of Cape York and the former extending thence as 

 far south as Moreton Bay. The last-named species, of which an illustration is given in Plate 

 XLVI., Fig. 4, is distinguished at Thursday Island by the title of the queen fish. The subdivision 

 of the posterior margin of the dorsal fin into penicellated tufts or finlets, together with the minute 

 spicule-like character of the scales, which are buried in the skin, serve to distinguish the genus 

 Chorinemus from that of Caranx. 



Included in the same family of the Carangidas is the large and valuable food fish known in 



the Queensland, Victorian, and Tasmanian fish markets as the yellow-tail, Scriola grandis, Cast. 



The Sydney fishermen apply the name of the king fish to a species that is in every essential respect 



identical, which is known to science as Scriola Lalandii, C. & Val. The common horse-mackerel, 



Trachurus dedivis, C. & Val., is also associated with the name of the yellow-tail in the 



Sydney market. The true yellow-tail, Seriola, now under discussion, is not unfrequently 



taken in Moreton Bay. It is a "school" fish growing to a weight of from 50 to 60 lb., readily 



taken with hook and line, or, as in some localities, with the harpoon. It is much esteemed for 



o o 



