EDIBLE FISHES- OF QUEENSLAND.— OGILBY. 19 



•cause." He has also remarked that the Yellowbelly is the most short-lived of our 

 fresh-water fishes after its removal from the water, invariably dying within five 

 minutes of its capture. 



Anderson remarks — ' ' The food of the Golden Perch consists principally of 

 small fishes, including its own species, yabbies, prawns, and insect larvis. It 

 prefers live food. The most effective baits for the capture of this fish are small 

 live fishes, yabbies, prawns, and artificial spinners. The Aborigines on the 

 Murray seem to prefer the yabbie. The Golden Perch will not, I think, rise to the 

 surface for an artificial fly, but a salmon fly skilfully worked through the water, 

 particularly if fitted with a spinning head, will tempt them. From the point of 

 view of sport I consider the Golden Perch second among the fishes of the Murray 

 System," 



Stead informs us that "it is pre-eminently what might be called a 'still- 

 water' fish, being very abundant in lagoons and billabongs. It is also a 'mid- 

 water' fish; that is, it swims at some distance from the bottom usually. It is a 

 fish of the plains rather than one of the mountains." Further on he says — 

 "Though taken by hook and line, the usual method of capture is by means of a 

 short meshing-net (gill-net) which is set at night across the billabong or lagoon." 

 And, quotes the evidence of a professional fisherman, as telling him "that one of 

 this species will blunder straight into a meshing-net, apparently without seeing 

 it ; while a Murray Cod under the same circumstances would swim up to within 

 a short distance of the net, and then quickly take fright and double back again." 



Dimensions : — In large rivers, such as the Murray and its more important 

 tributaries, the Yellowbelly grows to a considerable size. The largest weighed by 

 ?Ir. Anderson was a female, taken in Yanco Creek, which turned the scale at 

 14 lb. 2 oz. This, however, seems to be quite an unusual size, most writers being 

 content to credit it with a maximum weight varying between 7 and 10 lb. ; v/hile 

 according to Roughley the average of the fishes sent to the Sydney Market is 

 from 4 to 5 lb. In the Queensland rivers, with their lesser volume of water, it 

 does not as a rule attain to such a size as in more southern streams, nevertheless 

 specimens approximating to the 10 lb. limit are occasionally captured, and I have 

 before me now a photograph, given to me by Mr. Glencross Smith, of an example 

 taken in Oakey Creek, which weighed 9 lb. 12 oz. 



Range: — All the rivers of the Murray System; cismontane rivers of 

 Eastern Australia from the Clarence to the Dawson ; rivers of South-Western 

 Queensland — Barcoo, Landsborough, Cooper, and Diamantina (Anderson) ; 

 Thomson River, common {Miss Bancroft). Dr. T. Bancroft writes — "The 

 Yellowbelly does not occur in the Burnett River, but I caught a few by netting 

 in the Upper Dawson." 



