102 EDIBLE PISHES OE NEW SOUTH WALES. 



a dozen or so are frequently captured in this way at odd times in the upper 

 waters about Sandy Bay as late as July. They go in schools, but they are 

 stated to have greatly fallen off in numbers during the last year or two ; 

 the reason for this decrease has not yet been satisfactorily determined. They 

 are delicious little fishes, averaging a quarter of a pound in weight, silvery, 

 with elongate snout and body. The sides are faintly marked with yellowish 

 bars, which become obsolete towards the belly." Further on the same 

 author remarks : — " When (freshly) caught, however, there are six to seven 

 faint irregularly oblique bars running across the side in a forward direction 

 from the dorsal to the lateral line. Faint oblique streaks of olive ornament 

 the interspaces between the dorsal rays. There are invariably seventy rows 

 of scales along the lateral line. Average length ten inches." Mr. Johnston, 

 presumably from personal examination, gives the formula of the anal fin in 

 the Tasmanian species as 2/18-19 ; in all the specimens of S. ciliata which 

 have passed through our hapds, that formula was 2/16, while in S. maculata 

 it was 1-2/20-21, the Tasmanian fish being, theretore, intermediate in this 

 character. We may at once withdraw ;S'. ciliata from the discussion, as from 

 Johnston's remarks we have ample evidence that his fish does n ot belong to that 

 species, the number of scales on the lateral line, the coloration, and the average 

 size and weight, all combining to preclude such a belief. The whole question, 

 therefore, rests on the identity or otherwise of S. hassensis with *S'. maculata, 

 and this can only be settled finally by a direct comparison of the Tasmanian 

 form with the undoubted S. maculata of our own coast. We may, how^ever, 

 remark that the anal formxila as given by Johnston, agrees with the figures 

 of 8. hassensis in the voyage of the Astrolabe, but by a clerical error 

 the authors of theHistoire Naturelle des Poissons, are represented as giving 

 that formula as 1/12, though in the next line they assert that it has two 

 anal spines {II y a deux epines a son anale). 



It is a resident of the seas of the Malay Archipelago, and ranges westward 

 as far as the Andaman Islands, but has not as yet been recorded from the 

 mainland of India. 



This species attains to a length of twelve inches, but the more usual 

 market size is under ten inches. 



SILLAG-O CILIATA. 



Sillaqo ciliata, Cuv. & Yal. Hist. Nat. Poiss. iii. j). US ; Cuv. Regne Anim. 



111. Poiss. pi. xiii. f . 2 ; Grnth. Catal. Fish. ii. p. 245 ; Casteln. Proc. 



Zool. Soc. Vict. ii. p. 113 ; Kner, Yoy. Novara, Fisch. p. 127 ; All. & 



Macl. Proc. Linn. Soc. IST. S. Wales, i. p. 279 ; Macleay, Catal. Austr. 



Fish. i. p. 202 ; AVoods, Fisher. N. S. AYales, pi. xxiv. 

 tSillago terrce-rer/incB, Casteln. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. AYales, ii. p. 232. 

 Sillaijo hassensis, Casteln. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, iii. p. 380; Macleay, 



Catal. Austr. Fish. i. p. 202. 



Sand Whiting-. 

 Plate XXVII. 



B. vi. D. 11. 1/17-18. A. 2/16. V. 1/^. P. 16. C. 17. L. lat. 61-65. L. tr. 

 6/12-13. Coec. pyl. 3. Vert. 14/19. 



Length of head 4.-00-4'20, of caudal fin 5-20-5-75, height of body 5-66- 

 5'85 in the total length. Diameter of eye, 4'00-5'25 in the length of the head, 

 and 1-75-2-50 in that of the snout: interorbital space flat, 1-00-1-40 in the 

 diameter of the eye. Nostrils approximate, the anterior crescentic and 



