138 MEMOIBS OF TEE QUEEXSLAKD MUSEUM. 



among the South Sea Islands, a remark which subsequent investigations have 

 shown to be correct. The tirst detinite locality attached to an Australian specimen 

 is that established by Alleyne and ]Macleay in 1877 who, in their account of the 

 Fishes of the Chevert Expedition, recorded its capture at the Percy Islands, 

 M.Q., thus adding this fine fish to our Queensland fauna. Their record was 

 quickly verified by Klunzinger who, two years later, listed it from Cleveland 

 Bay, N.Q., and Giinther who, in the following year, recorded it from Somerset, 

 X.Q., from specimens brought back by the Challenger Expedition. jMacleay in 

 1881 gave its Australian distribution as "Port Jackson. All Australian Coasts." 

 I do not know on what groimds he made this sweeping statement, but it is 

 certainly quite unwarranted. As far as Port Jackson is concerned his record 

 is copied from Castelnau.-'*^ whose description refers to T. hotla, and has unfor- 

 tunately been passed on by other writers on the New South Wales fishes (Woods, 

 Ogilby, Waite). Personally I do not know of any example wiiich can be unciues- 

 tionably assigned to the southern State, nor does ^NlcCulloch, Avith whom I 

 communicated on the subject. Stead, however, writes me thus — ' ' I have certainlj' 

 seen Trachinotus ovatus from New South Wales waters, though rarely, and 

 always among consignments of fish coming in from our northern waters." It 

 is certainly not found in Victoria nor Tasmania, and it has not been recorded 

 from either South or West Australia nor from the Northern Territory,-'^ though 

 it is doubtless found in the two last-named areas. ]\Iacleay subsequently recorded 

 a specimen from Port Moresby. BN'^.G. ; Jordan and Richardson obtained it from 

 Formosa, this being the most northerly position from which it has as yet been 

 recorded. Jordan and Scale were unable to add any further South Sea localities 

 to those already known, though they collected three specimens at Samoa, but 

 Kendall and Goldsborough report the capture of a small specimen at Vavau in 

 the Tonga Group. 



Uses: — This species is so scarce, at least with us in Southern Queensland, 

 that I am. unable to give personal information as to its value as a food-fish. 

 Most of the older writers, however, give it an excellent character. Valentyn's 

 verdict, for instance, is "small but very delicate," a remark which suggests that 

 he did not know the adult fish. Riippell writes of it as being "very good eating." 

 Both Leschenault and Dussumier reported to Valenciennes that "its fiesh is fine 

 and choice." The only discordant note in this chorus of praise was sounded by 

 Russell who tells us, writing of a 20-in. example, that "it is a dry insipid fish," 

 a statement which is retailed without comment by Day who, however, allows that 

 it ".smokes Avell." Taking into consideration its very close relationship to the 

 " pampano" of the Atlantic, and the very high character for excellence to which 

 that species has attained. I incline to the belief that the snub-nosed swallowtail 

 will prove an acquisition to our tables, when modern methods of capture and 

 distribution have placed it within our reach. 



liangc: — From the Red Sea southward to ^Madagascar and the Seychelles, 

 and eastward through the Indian and ^Malayan Seas to Intertropical Australia, 

 New Guinea, the New Hebridean, Tongan, and Samoan Archipelagos. In 



^o Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, iii, p. 38.3. 



'^ Is it not time that this huge tract of land receiv'ed a distinctive appellation and its 

 baptism as a State ? And what more fitting tribute than this could be paid to the memory of 

 one of the greatest of the Empire's sons — Charles Darwin — who visited it in the " Beagle" 

 as long ago as 1836. Floreat Darwinia ! 



