EDIBLE FISHES OF QUEENSLAND.— OGILBY. 143 



Described from a single example, 205 millim. long, obtained at Eaine 

 Island, N.Q., and presented to the Queensland Museum by the Wanetta Pearling 

 Company. Reg. No. 1. 14/1917. The number of scales and of dorsal and anal 

 rays is, however, supplemented by information kindly supplied by Mr. 

 IMcCulloch. 



Historical : — This beautifully marked sole was first made known to science 

 in the early years of the nineteenth century by Lacepede, who placed it in the 

 first subdivision of his genus Achinis, along with his A. harhatus, A. marmoratus, 

 and A. fasciatus. The two first of these are congeneric with the subject of this 

 article, nevertheless Cuvier arbitrarily selected a sY)ecieS'—Pleuronectes achirus 

 Linua?.us — of which Lacepede makes no mention, as the type of the restricted 

 genus Achirus, and his example has unfortunately been followed bj^ those writers 

 who succeeded him, with the exception of Kaup, to whose honor it is that he 

 restored Achirus to those fishes for which Lacepede originally designed it.^'' 

 In the edition of Lacepede 's works to which I have access (Paris 1836) no 

 locality is mentioned for this fish, but since it is stated that the type belonged 

 to the collection of the Stadtholder, annexed from Holland by France during 

 the Napoleonic wars, we may safely conclude that it came from the Dutch 

 East Indies. With the exception of a passing reference by Shaw, who referred 

 it back to the genus PJeuroncctes, nothing more was heard of this fish until, 

 under the name of A. niaculatus, its presence in Batavian waters w^as announced 

 by Bleeker some forty years later on the authority of the jMSS. of Kuhl and 

 van Hasselt. By the same name Bleeker subsequently recorded it from Madura 

 and Sourabaya. Cantor in 1850, restoring Lacepede 's name, reports a single 

 specimen as having been obtained at Pinang some years previously. From this 

 period until 1860 its history consists of a series of records by Bleeker for various 

 islands of the Malay Archipelago ; indeed, so far as that author is concerned, the 

 series is continued up to 1879, when he added it to the Chinese fauna on the 

 strength of a specimen contained in the Hamburg Museum ; all these later records 

 are given under A. pavoninus. In 1860 Giinther initiated a new era in the 

 history of this fish by forming for it and its Lacepedian congeners A. harhatus 

 and A. marmoratus^^ the genus Pardachirus, which is now generally recognised, 

 the most notable exceptions being Day, who followed Kaup, and Ogilby, who 

 followed Day and was followed by Waite and Stead. The earliest notice of its 

 occurrence on the shores of Australia was published in 1877 by AUeyne and 

 Macleay, who obtained their specimens at Capes Grenville and York, N.Q., 

 during the Chevert Expedition. Two years later Castelnau included the species 

 in a list of Port Jackson fishes, but the southern Peacock Sole is easily recog- 

 nisable from its northern relative by the ctenoid character of its scales. 

 Steindachner obtained a pair from Ternate, an island which is not represented in 

 Bleeker 's list. Coming to recent times Jordan and Scale extended its range 

 to the New Hebrides, while Giinther added New Britain, the Solomons, and the 

 Tonga Group. Jordan and Richardson announced its presence in the Philip- 

 pines, and Snyder recorded specimens from as far north as Okinawe, an island 

 of the Riu Kiu Archipelago. Finally "Weber reported it from Samoa, the most 

 easterly point as yet noticed. 



1* International zoological jurisdiction has, however, found it expedient to uphold the 

 wrong-doer, and thus forced us into the incongruous position of accepting that which we know 

 to be a manifest absiu'dity, or worse. 



^^ These are considered to be identical. 



