128 MEMOIFS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



teeth; vomerine teeth rarely present. Anterior dorsal and anal rays forming a 

 lobe (except in Potamorrhaphis) ; no dorsal or anal finlets. Posttemporal forked, 

 the upper fork more or less expanded, anteriorly attached to the nearly horizontal 

 epiotic and pterotic lamina, the lower fork short and slender, attached to a 

 process of the exoceipital lamina; supracleithrum small, vertical, more or less 

 concealed beneath the posttemporal. Vertebra} 57 to 77; precaudals with strong 

 parapophyses to which the ribs are attached. 



Carnivorous synentognaths inhabiting all warm seas ; many of the species 

 enter rivers and a few live permanently in fresh water. Six genera, with about 

 60 species, are now recognized. Of these, two — Tylosurus and Athlennes — have 

 already been recorded from our waters; species of Bclonc occur from the East 

 Coast of Africa and North-West Australia through the South Sea Islands to 

 Hawaii and can not, therefore, be overlooked; Xcneniodon rests at present on 

 Macleay's statement- "235. Belone cancila Buch. ' Quarrabudda ' of the natives. 

 From fresh water [at Port Moresby or Cuppa Cuppa]." I am inclined to doubt 

 the correctness of tlie identification of this Indo-Burmese fish so far east. 

 Several species of needle-tishes (better known to our fishing community by the 

 vernacular name "long torn") frequent our seas, while others doubtless occur 

 on our northern borders as evidenced by their recorded distribution. '"They are 

 carnivorous and predacious, feeding at or near the surface, wandering in small 

 companies or singly along the shore, and rarely venturing to any great distance 

 from the land. Like all fishes of similar habits, whose strenuous mode of 

 existence demands great and continuous muscular exertion, they require a large 

 amount of nourishment to replace the loss occasioned by their active life, and 

 sustain in unabated vigor the energy on which such excessive calls are made ; 

 it is not surprising, therefore, that we find them extremely swift in movement 

 and insatiable in appetite. They are consequently very destructive to small or 

 young surface-swimming fishes, of Avhich they destroy vast numbers in excess of 

 those which they actually consume. They delight in throwing themselves high 

 into the air, and frequently skim along the surface of the water for a considerable 

 distance with marvelous velocity. Such, indeed, is their reckless impetuosity 

 that, in the case of the larger and weightier species, serious accidents, resulting 

 even in death, have been caused to bathers from the impact of the dagger-like 

 beak on the unprotected body. Their partiality for leaping over any small 

 fioating object, which may attract their attention, is another peculiar habit 

 common to these volatile fishes ; in some countries this habit is ingeniously made 

 use of for their capture, by the simple means of a wooden framework, which 

 somewhat loosely supports a piece of fine netting. They may also be taken by 

 hook and line from a moving boat in a strong tideway, so long as the lure, 

 for wdiich any small shining object will suffice, is kept near the surface. All the 

 species are of good quality for the table, and though often rejected because of 

 the greenish color of their bones, this is natural and has no deleterious 

 significance. The ova, which are large and consequently few in number, float on 

 the surface when first shed ; each ovum, however, is provided with several series 

 of silky filaments, and is eiiabled, by means of these delicately barbed processes, 

 to attach itself to any suitable object. When the little fish first emerges from the 

 egg both its jaws are^short, but they soon begin to lengthen, and it is a remarkable 

 fact that the lower increases so much more rapidly than the upper that, by the 



2 Proo. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, vii, p. 592. 



