52 LOED HOWE ISLAND. 



PISHES. 



The present cataloc^ue of the Pislies of Lord Howe Island is as complete as 

 the means at my disposal allow, having been compiled from the following 

 sources : — (i) The British Museum Catalogue ot'Eishes, 1859-70, by Dr. Albert 

 Grlinther, who however appears to have been acquainted with a single 

 species only, and that of very doubtful authenticity ; (ii) specimens collected 

 by Captain Armstrong, late Resident Magistrate of the island, and forwarded 

 by him to the Museum ; (iii) a collection made by Mr. A. Morton ; (iv) a 

 fish presented to the Hon. Wm. Macleay by the late Mr. H. T. Wilkinson, 

 at that time the Visiting Magistrate, and which is undoubtedly the most 

 interesting of the entire collection, as proving the existence of the genus 

 Tetrarjonurus in the southern hemisphere, while the species itself is absolutely 

 identical with Lowe's Atlantic species* ; (v) Eishes presented to the Museum 

 from time to time by Mr. Langley ; (vi) specimens in the Macleay Collec- 

 tion at Elizabeth Bay, and kindly placed at my disposal by the owner ; 

 (vii) the collection formed by Messrs. E.. Etheridge, jun., T. AVhitelegge, 

 and J. Thorpe ; and (viii) the specimens obtained by Mr. E. H. Saunders. 

 The two latter collections, the first of which was specially organized and 

 equipped by the Australian Museum, yielded by far the most important 

 results, and added greatly to our knowledge of the Biology and Palaeontology 

 of this interesting oceanic islet. 



It is unfortunately out of my power to give any definite account of the 

 Pala?ichthyan fishes of the island, but from information elicited from Messrs. 

 Etheridge, Langley, and Saunders, I am convinced that Galeocerdo raifueri^ 

 and Carcharodon rondeletii will prove to be the most abundant of the large 

 sharks. 



The number of species included in the present list is eighty-eight, five of 

 which, a Petrosch'tes, a Lotella, a Pseiidoscarus, a Palistes, and a Gohioides, 

 are irrecognizable owing to the bad condition in which they now are. Of the 

 remaining eighty-three species fourteen are described as new, one of which 

 belongs to a new genus of deep-sea fishes {Stei-noptijchidce) ; these are as 

 follows : — AjJOf/on chri/surus, Gha'fodon aplirodite, Haplodactyhts ctlieridgii, 

 CirrMticlitliys splendens, Pempheris univinj, Gohius (Folosoma, Pouiaceutrits 

 fasciolafus, Glypliidodon p)oly acanthus, Anampses elegans, A. variola f us, Soica 

 ramsail Sternop>ti/clddes dentata, Monacanthus howensis, and Tetrodon caUis- 

 ternus; while of the sixty- nine species then left, no less than twenty-one 

 are here recorded for the first time from Australian waters. These are as 

 follows : — Antliias ciclilops, ScorpcBtia cooki, Plesiops nigricans, Salarias 

 variolosus, S. marmoratus, S. quadricornis, AcantJ/ocIinus littoreus, Cossyphus 

 atrolumhus, Lahroides paradisms, Anampses twisti, Stetliojulis axillaris, 

 P'latyglossus pseiulominiatus, P. trimaculatus, Julis lunaris, J. trilobata, 

 Sauriis varius, ExocoeHis dovi, Sprattelloides gracilis, Congromurcena mellissi, 

 Ostrncion fornasini, and Tetrodon valentini. Of the remaining forty-eight 

 species, one of which, Serranus ouatalihi, has a very doubtful rect)rd, thirteen 

 only have been recorded from New Zealand, of which number eleven are 

 also known from the Australia!! coast ; it therefore follows that so far as 

 the fishes are concerned the fauna is strictly Australian, only two species, 

 Acanthoclinus littoreus and Ostracion fornasini, having been recorded from 

 New Zealand, and not from Australian seas, while the former was, previous 



* See the paper "On the genus l^cfj-agonuriix," by Dr. Ramsay and the author, 

 published in the Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, m (2), 1888, p. 9. 



