128 EDIBLE FISHES. 



Dr. Guntlior makes the following interesting remm-ks : — " Tlie family of 

 GalaxAdcH was formed by tbc late Johannes Miiller for a single genns, 

 Galaxias — scaleless fresh-water fishes from the temperate zone of the 

 southern hemisphere, which, with regard to the development and posi- 

 tion of their fins, i-emind ns of the Pikes of the northein hemisphere 

 but in other respects resemble the Salmonoids, to which they have been 

 compared by Miiller. Also, the settlers of at least some parts of New 

 Zealand have dignified the larger kinds with the name of ' Trout,' or 

 or ' Rock-trout.' However, they cannot be regarded as the southern 

 representatives of the Salmonoids, inasmuch as recent researches have 

 shown that this latter family is represented in the southern hemisphere 

 by other much more closely allied genera [Hcqylochiton and Prototroctes). 

 If we look for the representatives of the Galaxidce in other zones, per- 

 haps the African Alormyridoi and the Arctic Esocidce are those which 

 may be mentioned with the greatest propriety. 



" Up to the present time only twelve species of Galaxias are known. 

 Their geographical distribution is a point to which the greatest interest 

 attaches. We find the genus most developed in New Zealand, where 

 five sjjecies occur, and these are the largest of the whole grouj). West- 

 wai-ds it extends to New South Wales with thi'ee, and to Van Diemen's 

 Land with two species. Another is said to be an inhabitant of the 

 creeks of Queensland ; but tliis is doubtful. Eastwards the same genus 

 is met with again in the southernmost parts of America (Falkland 

 Islands, Patagonia, Terra del Fuego), whence three sj^ecies are known ; 

 and finally, a minute form is said to occur in Chile. The occurrence of 

 the same natural genus of fresh-water fishes in Australia, New Zealantl, 

 and South America, would ap})ear to be significant enough, and must be 

 the more so when we find that even one and the same species (Galaxias 

 attenuatus) inhabits the fresh waters of countries separated at jiresent 

 by the South Pacific Ocean."* 



Two species of this fish have been figured as they are most frequently 

 met with, and illustrate the greatest variety of external form which the 

 genus presents in New Zealand. 



G. fasciatus, PL X. fig. 94, is the Kokojiu proper, reduced to one- 

 half the natural size of the specimens most frequently caught, but they 

 ai'e sometimes very much lai'ger. It is a fat sluggish fish found luiking 

 under stones and rotten logs in all the streams in the colony, however 

 small, where not running over a clear or stony bottom. They afibrd 

 * "Aim. and Mag. of Natural History," Novcuiber, 1807. 



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