EDIBLE FISHES OF QUEENSLAND.— OGILBY. 139 



from ''Freshwater, Ilmiter River" and, possiblj'" misled by the different 

 character of the element in which it was found, rcdeseribed it as Solea fluviatilis. 

 his two descriptions being almost word for word the same. No further 

 information was publislied regarding it till 1893 when I (3) was able to publish 

 some particulars as to its frequency, distribution, and food-value. These notes 

 were supplemented by Waite in his "Thetis" Report, who not only considerably 

 increased its southward and northward range, but w'as able to fix the spawning 

 season for i\liddle New South Wales, a most important advancement in the sum 

 of our knowledge of the economy of the species. Some years later Stead increased 

 its range north to Port Macquarie, while in the same year I was able to announce 

 its presence in Queensland waters, several young exam.ples having been brought 

 to me for identification by Mr. William Nicklin, who obtained them in the 

 Brisbane River. 



Eeprochictioii: — In my "Edible Fishes of New South Wales" I stated 

 that these soles "are occasionally found in considerable numbers, especially 

 during the spring months, when they come in apparently from the open sea in 

 shoals, all being of large size and about the same l-ength; these school fish are 

 very thick and firm and of delicious flavor, but are without rudiments of 

 spaAvn." Waite 's investigations on board the "Thetis" tend to confirm my 

 observations, for he writes that "all the specimens of sutficient size were full of 

 almost ripe ova, and as the extreme dates are the 2nd and 19tli March, the end 

 of that month may be approximately determined as the spawning season," and 

 elsewhere "we . . . discovered the breeding season to be March and April." 

 These remarks apply to the coast of New South Wales between Shoalhaven Bight 

 and Cape Hawke, and we may naturally infer that with us the season would be 

 a full month later or the latter part of April and May. This supposition receives 

 a partial confirmation in that none of the 15 adult examples captured by the 

 " Endeavour" in the neighborhood of Moreton Bay during the first week of 

 September showed signs of breeding. It will be noticed that at least three of 

 the stations where spawning fishes were trawled by the "Thetis" lie off the mouth 

 of considerable rivers (Shoalhaven and Hunter), and I believe that the procedure 

 may safely be outlined thus : — -In the spring of the year the fishes, which have 

 spent the winter months in moderately deep water, begin to draw inshore, and 

 this movement doubtless continues with more or less regularity throughout the 

 summer, during which time the ova is gradually ripening, that of the individuals 

 which make their way shorewards earliest coming to maturity sooner than that 

 of the later arrivals. As the time for shedding the spawn approaches the fishes 

 collect in the vicinity of river mouths, where they shed their pelagic ova, after 

 which operation they retire once more to deeper water to recoup. The young 

 fishes, as soon as the yolk-sac is absorbed, make their waj^ into the estuaries, and 

 gradually work up these even to far beyond the limit of the tide, as we know from 

 the Hunter River example described by Ramsay as Solea fluviatilis, and from a 

 specimen exhibited by me at a meeting of the Linncean Society of New South 

 Wales, which was captured at Codrington, a township on the Richmond River 

 58 miles above its mouth. 



Uses: — A delicious pan-fish, fully equal in flavor to its famous European 

 relative, Solea solea. Waite writes — "As to its edible qualities all on board the 

 'Thetis,' where it was freely partaken of, pronounced it to be of admirable 



