102 NEW SOUTH WALES 



CHAPTER VI. 



Our Fresh-water Food Fishes. 



In such a dry climate as that of Australia, where the rivers are few, 

 and except in winter mere sluggish narrow streams, it is not to be 

 expected that our fresh- water fishes can be either numerous or abundant. 

 For the colonists in the immediate neighbourhood they have a certain 

 economical importance, but the fisheries do not emj^loy many hands, nor 

 are they ever likely to. The river system of the western side of the 

 Dividing Range is confined to the Murray and its tributaries, of which 

 only the Darling, Murrumbidgee, Lachlan, and Macquarie, can be called 

 rivers, and of these some of the upper feeders run dry ui seasons of 

 severe drought. Outside the influence of these rivers, and in the far 

 western country, such a thing as a fish is never seen. In the little 

 creeks small cat-fish (Copidoglanis tandanus) is found. This afibrds the 

 only sport that anglers can obtain, and the fish, one of the Slluridce, 

 forms a delicacy which is appreciated by those to whom fish is such a 

 rarity. With regard to the fish fauna of the waters of the western side 

 of the range, it is very uniform ; the same genera and species are found 

 in all of them. If there are any local peculiarities they are as yet 

 unkjiown. Foremost amongst them as an ai'ticle of diet is the " Murray 

 Cod," of which there are two species ; they belong to the family of 

 Perches and to the genus Oligorus. It is distinguished by having an 

 oblong body covered with scales. The cleft of the mouth is rather 

 oblique, the lower jaw being the longer. Teeth viliform, extending to 

 the vomer and palatine bones, but with no canines. There is one long 

 dorsal fin, the first eleven rays of which are spinous. The anal fin has 

 three spines, and the tail is rounded. The preoperculum has a single 

 mai'gin, which is smooth or faintly toothed. Some of these fishes grow 

 to an immense size, and they are found in the sea as well as rivers. 

 One, 0. terrce-reginm, Ramsay, goes by the name of the Groper in Queens- 

 land. In the Brisbane River specimens are caught weighing over 160 

 lbs., and measuring more than 6 feet in length. A large species named 

 0. gigas (the Hapuku of the Maoris), is caught off New Zealand, which 

 reaches a weight of 100 lbs. 



The Murray Cod. 



(Plate XLI.) 



Oligorus viacquariensis, Cu\^ and Val., which is the " Kookoo- 

 bul " of the Murrumbidgee natives, " Pundy" on the Lower Murray, 

 In this species the height of the body is four times and three quarters 

 in the total length, the length of the head three and a-half, the diaaieter 

 of the eye is one seventh of the latter. Preoperculum, supra-scapular 

 and preorbital entire, pectoral and ventral fins short ; fifth dorsal spine 

 the longest ; second and third spine of the anal fin nearly equal ; colour 

 greenish brown, with numerous small dark green spots ; belly whitish, 

 but the colour varies much in difierent places. 



