riSH AND FISHERIES. 13 



Part of our fisli fauna is made up from the Pacific region, but this is 

 not so large an ingredient as might be expected. Thus we have not 

 many New Zealand species. Dr. Giinther is the authority for the state- 

 ment that many of the species of the South Australian province and 

 New Zealand coasts are identical. It is certainly not true of the 

 south-east coasts of Australia, with regard to the species, and even the 

 identity of genera is comparatively small, at least of those genera which 

 are characteristic of South Australia or peculiar to its coasts. Of these, 

 as already stated, we have fifteen in N.S.W., only eight of which 

 extend to New Zealand, namely, Trygonorhina, Arripis, Trachichthys, 

 Chii'onemus, Latris, Leptoscopus, Labrichthys, and Odax. 



The other genera which we have in common with New Zealand are — 

 Phinobatus, Raiia, Trygon, Urolophus, Anthias, Haplodactylus, Pagrus, 

 Scorpis, Trachichthys, Chilodactylus, Scorpsena, Lepidotrigla, Trigla, 

 Bovichthys, Thyrsites, Zeus, Trachurus, Caranx, Cristiceps, Engraulis, 

 Clupea, Conger, Mur?enichthys, Syngnathus, Monocanthus, Ostracion, 

 Branchiostoma. This makes thirty-five genera common to the south- 

 east of Australia and New Zealand. Nor can we be surprised at this 

 result, as the distance is great, and a very deep sea intervenes between 

 the two provinces. We have not at present the means of estimating the 

 proportion of species which occur also in other islands of the Pacific, 

 but it must be smaller than the New Zealand element, because of the 

 depth of the sea intervening, and the distance separating New South 

 Wales from most of the Pacific Islands. 



To sum up the results, therefore, we find that in New South Wales 

 the predominating characteristic of the fish fauna of its coasts is the 

 prevalence of genera peculiar to Australia, but which are more common 

 and better represented on the south coast. The species are for the most 

 part peculiar to New South Wales. Secondly, more than one-fourth of 

 the fauna is made up of tropical genera, about half of the species of 

 which are peculiar to the east coast of Australia. But the data are not 

 sufiicient to establish this with certainty. We have furthermoi'e a very 

 few local genera and species. Finally, the rest of the fauna is made up 

 of very wide-spread genera and species. A few of these are European, 

 more from the Pacific, more still common to Australia and New Zealand, 

 but the most having a wide range over the Indian oceans and Chinese 

 seas. 



As to our fresh-water fishes, the most of them are peculiar to our 

 rivers, and are not found outside our continent, at least as far as regards 

 the species. A veiy large proportion belong to the perch family ; and 

 one of the most common, the Murray Cod [Oligorus), is not an ex- 

 clusively fresh-water genus, but has marine representatives on our own 

 coasts aiid on those of New Zealand. Some other genera are peculiar 

 to Australia, such as Ctenolates Murrayia, Macquaria, Riverina ; but they 

 are all true perches, and the generic differences are slight. Therapon 

 is another percoid genus numerously represented in our rivers, but mostly 

 in the tropics, and it is also known in India. Lates is also a perch, and 

 is known in India. We have also numbers of the herring family in the 

 fresh-water streams, and several species of cat-fish or ISiluridce. We 

 have also eels, and a peculiar family called Gcdaxiadce, which is kno"\vn 

 only elsewhere in New Zealand and the extreme portions of South 



