28 



Our fish fauna has been very tardily worked out, and much remains to be done even now. A few of our fish are 

 wcrrld-wide in their distril^ution, and tlie species thus secured the great Linna-us as their sponsor. The first strictly 

 Australian species descrilied are, I believe, to be found in tlie pages of While's Journal to New Soiifh Wales, published in 

 1790. Amongst these a verv few Victorian forms are figured, in company with the Great Brown Kingfisher, and other 

 " specify non-de^cripli" as White ternn them. As expeditions from Europe became more frequent, Australian fish appear 

 in the systematic works, first of Bloch and of Lac^pede, and later on of Cuvier and Valenciennes. The voyages of the 

 Freycinet Expedition, of the As'rutn'te, Beai/I'', Ere'uis, and Tenor, added a large number of Australian species in the 

 Zoological Appendices to their Narratives. To Drs. Quoy and (laimard, to .Jenyns, and to Sir .lohn Richardson we owe 

 thus a numl^er of descriptions. To the latter, too, were forwarded several consignments of Tasmanian fish, and of course 

 many of these are common to Victoria and Tasmania : but it was not until 1S7'2 that a serious study was made of ^'ictorian 

 forms proper. In that year Count F. de Castelnau, well known for his ])revious researclies on the fish of .South America 

 and of the Cape of Oood Hope, publislied, in tlie Pnireediiigs of the Znologirnl Sodeli/ of Victoria, descriptions of aljout 1.50 

 species, which lie had obtained mostly from the Melbourne Fish Market. In the succeeding year he added notes on more 

 species. The Count's laliours liave made the work of those who follow him mainly of a supplementary nature. Amongst 

 others who have worked during the last twenty years at our fishes have been Drs. tiUnther, .Stcindachuer, KUlnzinger, 

 and especially the Hon. Sir William Macleay, of Sydney, who has done so much for Australian Ichthyology in many ways, 

 and most of all by tlie publication of his excellent Des-riplive Catuhique of Australian Fish. Finally, Professor McCoy 

 has given detailed descriptions and figures, usually in colours, of o\'er 50 species of our Victorian fish. 



STB.^MEK WITH l'.E.\M TK.WNl.. 



SUB-CLA.SS I.-^TELEOSTEI. 



ORDER I. ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



Division I. — AcANTHOPTEriVGii Perciformes. 



FAMILY PERCID.«. 



Late.s, Cuvier. 



L. rohinorum, Gunther, A.M.N.H., p. 114, 1863. 

 Macleay Cat. 2. 



Figured, McCoy, Prodr. Zool. Vict., pi. 14. 

 Loc. — Gippsland Lakes. Occurs also at .Sandridge 

 and at the mouth of the Saltwater River, 

 McCoy, I.e. 

 Vernacular name — Gippsland Perch. 



L. simi'is, Castelnau, P.Z.S. Vict, I, p. 44, 1872. 

 Macleay Cat. 3. 

 Loc. — Gippsland Lakes, scarce, Castelnau, I.e. 



Lates, Cuvier — continued. 



L. an'an ticu.i, Castelnau, P.Z.S. Vict. I, p. 44, 1872. 



Macleay Cat. 4. 



Syn. — t. colonoiuin, var., McCoy, I.e. 



Vernacular name— .*>V(/ Ptrch. 

 L. victoria, Castelnau, P.Z.S. Vict. I, p. 4o, 1872. 



Macleay Cat. 5. 



MlcKOPERCA, Castelnau. 



M. Yarra:, Castelnau, P.Z.S. Vict. I, p. 48, 1872. 

 Macleay Cat. 12. 

 Loc. — Lower Yarra, Castelnau, I.e. 



^',N0PLOscs, Lacepede. 



E. armatus, white sp., Voyage to N.8.W., 17yo. 

 Gunther Cat. I, p. 81 : Macleay Cat. 13. 

 Figured White, Voy. to N.S.W., pi. .39. 

 Loc. — Passim. 



Vernacular name — Bastard Uorey, Old Wife, Zebra 

 fish. 



