190 SfOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



Fisheries, visited Melbourne to arrange for the introduction of live 

 roach in New South Wales. It was intended to strip the fish, and 

 after fertilization to convey the eggs in suitable vessels from Mel- 

 bourne to Sydney. Unfortunately they were not able to secure 

 any fish for stripping, " as the roach shoal passed from the lower to 

 the upper waters of the Yarra river without being observed by the 

 scouts who were on the look out for them, and they were therefore 

 compelled to collect eggs which were deposited in weeds in the 

 river." About 30,000 eggs were collected in this manner, and were 

 hurriedly despatched in wooden buckets to Sydney ; but on arrival 

 at Prospect Hatchery on the following day, all but about 100 were 

 dead, and the survivors were so low in condition as to give no hope 

 of fry being obtained for any practical purpose. " The eggs were 

 evidently in too advanced a stage of development when obtained 

 from the river to ensure success, and this was evidenced by the 

 bulk of them hatching out on the journey, and the fry dying at 

 once on account of the unsuitable conditions." 



Other work in connection with inland fisheries chiefly concerned 

 river pollution and trout acclimatization. 



A conference of fisheries experts, convened by the Federal 

 Government in connection with the Australian fisheries, was held 

 at Melbourne in August, 1907. It was agreed that the first duty 

 was to ascertain the nature and extent of the native fish. For this 

 purpose it was decided to equip a vessel, and to appoint a person of 

 practical acquaintance with fish and fisheries to be Commissioner of 

 Fisheries, whose duty would be to engage upon a systematic investi- 

 gation of waters o£E the coasts of Australia and Tasmania and of 

 the biological and physical problems which they present, " with the 

 object of determining the character, abundance, distribution, and 

 economic value of the inhabitants of the waters, as also their migra- 

 tions and the causes influencing or regulating the same, the object 

 being to arrive at the life-history of aU species having economic 

 value, as well as those species to which they are intimately and 

 essentially related." 



The report from which the preceding selections have been made 

 is a lengthy one of 71 pages. It wiU be seen that the AustraMan 

 Commonwealth have quite recently inaugurated a system of fishery 

 investigation in no niggardly spirit. 



Ed. 



3. Spider Mimicry.— Lsist year Mr. E. E. Green described a 

 remarkable case of mimicry on the part of an Attid spider which 

 resembled a Mutilhd wasp (see Spolia Zeylanica, vol. IV., p. 181 ; 



