EDIBLE FISHES OF QUEENSLAND.— OGILBY. 7 



a variety. The proportion of depth to length is given by him as 1 to 3-33, 

 but examples from Port Stephens, Shoalhaven, Shellharbor, and Ulladulla, 

 examined by the writer in preparation of this article, ranged between 1 to 2-75 

 and 1 to 3-5. This character, therefore, having proved invalid, and there being no 

 other on which to rely, it follows that L. curtus should be merged in P. 

 colonorum." 



I find all the alleged differential characters attributed to these three latter 

 species — L. antarcticus, L. victorice, and L. curtus — reproduced in one or other 

 of the four examples forwarded to me from New South Wales, thus further 

 proving their w^orthlessness, if that were necessary. 



Nothing now remains but to consider the claims of Macleay's Lates 

 ramsayi, and a very cursory glance at the description suffices to show that no 

 mandate to specific recognition can be with justice urged on its behalf. Stress 

 seems to have been laid by its author on the fact of this, to him, unique example 

 having been provided with ten dorsal spines and seven anal rays ; variations such 

 as these are, as has been shown above, by no means so uncommon as is generally 

 supposed, though the coincidence of their occurrence in the same individual is no 

 doubt much more rare. In no other character does Macleay's diagnosis differ 

 from that of individual specimens of our common Perch, and it, therefore, with 

 the preceding four, must be relegated to the list of useless synonyms. The fact 

 of its having been taken in a land-locked waterhole^ doubtless had some effect on 

 its external appearance and thus helped to deceive its describer. 



** Mention was made above of a variety of the common Perch which 

 differed greatly in outward appearance from the ordinary fish. So far these 

 fishes have only been sent to the Australian Museum from the pools in the Snowy 

 Kiver immediately below the Falls, but without doubt other rivers, both of Now 

 South Wales and Victoria, will, now that notice is drawn to the form, be found 

 to have evolved under similar circumstances a similar variety. The differences 

 between it and the common market fish, which present themselves at a casual 

 glance, are the much more elongate habit, the proportionally longer and more 

 powerful fins, and, though this is a much less important characteristic, the brilliant 

 silvery color of this variety. A moment's thought, however, will suggest that 

 these differences, however important they may at first sight appear, are only to 

 be expected in fishes living under conditions, which differ so greatly from those 

 under which the species normally exists ; for, being practically forced to inhabit 

 rapidly running waters, subject to sudden, severe, and periodical floods, caused 

 for the most part by the melting of the snow on Kosciusko and the neighboring^ 

 ranges, it is patent that their changed surroundings and conditions of life would 

 induce a change in the direction indicated. 



' ' To Mr. A. M. N. Kose of Campbelltown I am indebted for the knowledge 

 of this well marked form, that gentleman having forwarded to the Australian 

 Museum at my request two specimens, the first taken at Christmas the second late 



•Not in the Parramatta Eiver as stated' by Macleay (6). 



