EDIBLE FISHES OF QUEENSLAND— OGILBY. 71 



of the species, but he extends its range to Vanikoro. 17 the principal island of the 

 Santa Cruz Group (notable as the place where the intrepid French navigator, 

 La Perouse, met disaster and death), and New Holland, whence it was first 

 obtained by Busseuil, the naturalist attached to the French Expedition in the 

 "Thetis" and "Esperanee" under the command of the younger Bougainville 

 about 1825. Some time later Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire described the same 

 species as new from a specimen taken at Suez. The next noteworthy feature of its 

 history was the figuring by Richardson in, 1848 of a very young specimen, 

 measuring about 70 millim. ; the transverse bands and caudal spots are well 

 shown in this figure, but according to my observations the body is too deep and 

 the head too large. Cantor, who followed him. gave a very accurate account 

 of the colors of a 225 millim. example. The next year, 1851, is an interesting 

 one in its history, for it was then Bleeker, rejecting the name Caranx, furnished' 

 it with a distinct generic title, Gnathanodon, a proceeding which, though followed 

 by certain authors, chiefly American, is quite unnecessary, since Commercon. 

 the original creator of Caranx, directly associated the name with this fish; this, 

 however, was entirely in accord with Bleeker 's peculiar taxonomic methods. 

 Bleeker mentions the species in no less than twenty-seven papers, but in not one 

 of the nine to which we have access is there a description, nor need any of them 

 concern us here save one published in 1855, in which he claims to have received 

 a specimen from Tasmania ; in this we are sure there is some error for. as we 

 have had occasion to point out with regard to another species included therein, 

 this trevally is a purely warm water form, and is not in any case likely, if there, 

 to have been overlooked by such observers as Allport, Johnston. Kent, and others. 

 Peters about the same time increased its range to Mozambique, while the next 

 notable accession to its distribution came from the very opposite axis of its 

 wanderings through Gill, who in 1863 described it as new from the Pacific 

 Coast of Panama, a proceeding which was called in question some years later by 

 Giinther, who asserted the identity of C. panamensis with C. speciosus, in 

 which opinion he was subsequently supported by Jordan and Gilbert. Meanwhile 

 Playfair had added the Seychelles to its list. In 1877 the only definitely 

 recorded Australian locality was Houtman's Abrolhos, AY. A., referred to by 

 Richardson but overlooked by Macleay, but in that j^ear Alleyne and Macleay 

 described it under a new name from the Queensland Coast, to which the junior 

 author afterwards added Torres Strait and Port Moresby. 



Uses: — Considering the large size and wide distribution of this fine fish 

 information regarding its edible qualities is decidely meagre. Cantor dismisses 

 it with the remark that " they are eaten by the natives," which recalls to mind 

 Pope's famous cynicism "damned with faint praise." Beyond this there is 



17 Valenciennes, with admirable impartiality, refers to this island as Vanicolo or 

 Vanikoro. My colleague, Mr. Douglas Rannie, whose knowledge of the Western Pacific Islands 

 is unequalled, assures me that they are one and the same. 



