EDIBLE FISHES OF QUEEN SLAM)— OGILli\ . 65 



Silvery, washed with bhie above tlie lateral line. 



Described from two specimens, measuring respectively 260 and 275 mm., 

 trawled by the Endeavour in Edgecumbe Bay at a depth of fourteen fatlioms on 

 sand and mud. 



Variativn: — Although after an exhaustive comparison of our fish with 

 Day's description and Bleeker's figure I have no hesitation in identifying it as 

 0. argcntcus, it is interesting to note that in both my examples there is an 

 eleventh spine interpolated between the spinous and the soft dorsals, with both 

 of whicli it is united, its length being subefpial to the tenth spine of the first dorsal 

 and rather less than half the spine of the second. Mr. McNeill, however, tells 

 me that the other specimens, eight in number, have the ordinary number of ten 

 spines in the first dorsal. 



Historical: — The Silver Teraglin is yet another of the fishes, which were 

 first brought to the notice of European scientists through the indefatigable 

 labors of those industrious Dutch naturalists Messrs. Kuhl and van Hasselt, who 

 sent home a painting of a specimen taken at Batavia ; this drawing subsequently 

 came into the hands of Valenciennes and formed the basis of his description of 

 the species, the name inscribed upon the painting being retained by him. From 

 the same source we gather that Dussuiuier found the fish upon the Malabar Coast 

 of India, and further that Major Farqidiar figured it from an example captured 

 in the Straits of Malacca, and which forms one of the collection of drawings of 

 Indian animals made by him and deposited in the library of the India House, 

 London. Prom Canton it was recorded by Richardson, while Cantor wi'ites — 

 "at Pinang this species is taken in numbers fiom June till August." Glinther 

 next listed a British Museum example from Ceylon, and durirg the following 

 year reported the occurrence of "this marine species" in the far-off rivers of 

 Nepal, whence the skin of a large specimen was brought by Mr. B. H. Hodgson 

 and presented to the same institution. Col. Playfair a few years later announced 

 its capture at Aden and off the "mouth of the Pangani River," an East African 

 stream, which enters the ocean opposite to the northern extremity of the Island 

 of Zanzibar, and the same observer subsequently collected it in the sea at Cape 

 Saint Mary, Madagascar. Bleeker received examples from Celebes, Madura, 

 Borneo, Java, Banca, Singapoi-e, Nias, Sumatra, Pinang, Siam, China, Bengal, 

 and Madagascar. TenLson Woods recorded its presence in Lake Bombon, Luzon, 

 and finally Evermann and Scale reported it from Bacon in the Philippine 

 Archipelago. The present record adds a long stretch of coast-line to its range, 

 the most easterly locality previously reported having been Bleeker's Celebesian 

 one ; incidentally it is also the first notification of the presence of a ti-ue OioUthus 

 in Australian waters. The southern fish, described respectively by Giinther and 

 Macleay as Oiolitlius atelodus and 0. teraglin, having proved to belong to the 

 allied genus Atractoscion, now takes its place in our system as A. atdodus.'^^ 



" My friend Mr. J. H. Hamson, whose knowledge of our edible fishes is extensive and 

 reliable, assures me that the southern teraglin occasionally occurs in Moreton Bay, but in the 

 absence of a specimen it is impossible to admit it to our faunal list. 



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