ON THE ICHTHYOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND. 13 



second voyages, that we are indebted for almost all that is known of the fish 

 of New Zealand. They figured or described upwards of sixty-five species, to 

 which nine have been added by Cuvier and Valenciennes in their admirable 

 ' Histoire des Poissons,' and sixteen by other writers, making in all ninety. 

 Even in this small list it is to be feared that in two or three instances the same 

 species is mentioned more than once under different names. 



From the great prolongation of the islands in a north and south direction, 

 the deep indentations of their coast-lines, the different exposures of their bays, 

 the variety of the beaches, the existence of sand-banks off their shores, their 

 numerous rivers and interior lakes, we should expect to find them rich in 

 fish, and in fact Polack says that few countries possess a greater abundance 

 or variety of the finny tribes. There is no place in the northern hemisphere, 

 situated in the same manner as New Zealand, so that it can be used as a 

 standard of comparison ; but the Mediterranean sea embraces similar parallels 

 of latitude and it is known to nourish at least 230 species of acanthopterygii 

 alone. The fish which frequent the shores of New Zealand are probably as 

 numerous as those which visit the coasts of Italy and Sicily, and we may ex- 

 pect to find among them a greater variety of the wandering oceanic kinds. 

 Lesson, in the zoological part of the account of the voyage of the Coquille, 

 gives an eloquent sketch of the general distribution of fish in the Southern 

 seas, which may be consulted with advantage ; but much information is still re- 

 quired to complete this department of zoology. Seamen are so well acquainted 

 with the general forms of the pelagic fish, that they have ceased to regard 

 them as objects of curiosity, or to record their appearance ; and we conse- 

 quently lack observations on the precise ranges of the species. It is of the 

 more local kinds, owing to their peculiar habits and strange shapes, that navi- 

 gators on visiting a foreign coast form the bulk of their collections. Of these, 

 some are strictly littoral in their haunts, and prey on the minute Crustacea 

 which deposit their spawn in such localities ; others browse on sea-weed or on 

 coral, and are not likely to traverse large districts of the ocean destitute of 

 such productions. The boleophthahni and some other Gobioides even ascend 

 the beach, and like little lizards chase their insect prey through rocky crevices. 

 The plectognathi seem to be peculiarly adapted for living in the surf of coasts 

 exposed to all the fury of the ocean, and particularly among the coral barriers 

 of the intertropical isles. Their powers of natation are small, aided though the 

 caudal be by the approximation to it of the other two vertical fins, and they are 

 apparently tossed about at the mercy of the waves. Some of them are protected 

 by hard elastic cuirasses, strengthened by strong spines placed at the angles ; 

 others have their soft integuments studded by projecting flexible spines like 

 those of the terrestrial hedge-hog or sea echinus ; and they possess moreover 

 the power of rendering themselves more buoyant by inflating the skin with 

 air, or of steadying themselves by taking in water as ballast. Australian spe- 

 cimens of these fish abound in every museum. 



The predominance of marsupial quadrupeds over the other Mammalia in 

 Australia is the distinguishing feature of its zoology, and it would form a 

 curious subject of inquiry, to ascertain whether there be anything analogous 

 in the other divisions of the animal kingdom existing in that quarter of the 

 world. Mr. Owen has shown that the marsupial structure is peculiarly 

 adapted to the necessities of animals that are required to traverse large tracts 

 of poor and barren country in search of food. Now an inhabitant of the 

 waters must be in a condition somewhat similar to the kangaroos in the wastes 

 of New Holland, when the element in which it is primarily organized to move 

 and from which it draws its subsistence is occasionally deficient. Immedi- 

 ately without the tropics there is a zone of various width but nowhere passing 



