302 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. 



the coasts of Japan and California. Clupca liypselosoma, Blk., is another Queensland herrin-g that 

 collects in enormous shoals, sometimes joining those of C. siindaica, and which is equally 

 esteemed for food. It may be distinguished from the species last-named by its deeper body. 

 In order to initiate a successful fishery for these several migratory species of herrings which 

 assemble in such vast shoals, drift net fishing, as practised in European and American waters, 

 must be resorted to. 



Some of the most remarkable representatives of the herring family inhabiting Queensland waters 

 remain yet to be noticed. These include very giants of their tribe, the one form, Chanos salmoneus, 

 BL, known locally as the bony salmon, or milk-fish, attains, as recorded by Dr. Giinther, to a 

 length of four feet. It is of such excellent eating that in many parts of India, to which its distribution 

 extends, it is domesticated and kept in large tanks, for sale to the wealthier inhabitants. It is 

 a species that readily enters fresh water, and abounds in many of the rivers and estuaries on the 

 Queensland coast-line, from the river Brisbane northwards. An illustration of this fine species is 

 given in Plate XLVI., Fig. 6. A second giant herring, which attains to even larger dimensions 

 than the foregoing species, is the so-called ox-eye, Megalops cyprinoides, Brouss., which may some- 

 times exceed five feet in length. The young of this fish freely enter fresh water, and it is by no 

 means uncommon at Rockhampton, and in the estuaries of the various Queensland rivers north- 

 ward from that point. It is highly esteemed for food, and in the Malay Archipelago, where it 

 likewise abounds, it is cultivated in tanks after the same manner as Chanos salnioiiciis. This 

 species is also illustrated in Plate XLV., Fig. 6. Flops saunts, L., is a third Queensland repre- 

 sentative of the giant herrings, attaining to a length of over three feet, but it is not held in the same 

 high estimation for the table. The same remarks apply also to Albiila conorhynchiis, BL, a species 

 equalling Elops saurus in size, which is often plentiful on the northern coast. Among other 

 species belonging to the same family of the Clupeidae have to be included the several varieties of 

 so-called bony-bream, genus Chatoessus, chiefly inhabiting fresh water, and one of which, C. erebi, 

 Rich., is plentiful in the Brisbane and other Queensland rivers. While esteemed by some as an 

 article of food, the abnormally bony nature of these fishes, whence their name, precludes their 

 very extensive utilisation. Brisbania Staigeri, Cast, is another fresh-water member of the herring 

 family, that is found in the upper reaches of the Brisbane River. There yet remains to be men- 

 tioned, in association with the herring tribe, a form of sprat, Spratelloides delicatidus, Beun., closely 

 allied to a Malayan type, S. gracils, Sch., which, in addition to the anchovy, is extensively used in 

 Celebes for the manufacture of the so-called " red iish." It is reported as abounding in many of 

 the inter-tropical districts of the Queensland coast-line, and might doubtless be turned to com- 

 mercial account. 



A somewhat remarkable fish caught throughout the Queensland coast-line, but which is more 

 particularly plentiful in the neighbourhood of Torres Strait, is the Dorab, or Silver-bar fish, 

 Chirocentrus dorab, Forsk., belonging to the separate family of the Chirocentridae. In aspect it 



