166 MEMOIA'S OF TEE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



Seas, remarking that it was "very common at Madras," while Klunzinger had 

 added it to the Commonwealth fauna on the strength of a specimen received 

 from Port Darwin. N.T. Bleeker added Madagascar and Mauritius to its 

 already extensive range, and finally Steindaehner received specimens from South 

 Arabia and Halmaheira (Gilolo). 



Uses: — Like all its congeners it is an excellent food-fish, and so realizes 

 a high price in the Brisbane shops, where, however, large specimens are seldom 

 seen, since these are most frequently caught on the outside Snapper Grounds by 

 members of pleasure parties, each and all of whom are adamant in the matter of 

 parting with what they justly consider one of their most valuable prizes. 



Food: — According to Ehrenberg it feeds principally on hard shell-fishes 

 (Cardium and the like), but with us it takes a bait, whether mullet or squid, 

 freely and is a game fighting fish when hooked. 



Bange: — From the Red Sea and the East Coast of Africa through 

 Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Seychelles to the shores of India, Gilolo, North 

 and East Coasts of Australia south to the Moreton Bay District, where it is 

 scarce. Fiji fide Giinther. 



A remarkable fact in connection with the distribution of this large and 

 sliowy fish is the failure of such voluminous Avriters on the Malayan fish-fauna 

 as Bleeker, Cantor, and more recently Weber, and of the energetic band of 

 American scientists, who have been for some years exploiting the Philippines, 

 to obtain specimens from either the Indo-Malayan or, Gilolo excepted, the Austro- 

 Malayan subregions. So strange is this that one would almost feel inclined to 

 doubt the specific identity of the Western Pacific fish with that of the Indian 

 Ocean. Day's description, however, agrees very fairly with our fish, except 

 as to the color-markings of the fins and the length of the tail, which is much 

 shorter in the Indian fish. 



In connection with this, one fact, however, forcibly strikes the inquirer, 

 namely, that the closely allied, if distinct, L. opercularis^ is found commonly 

 throughout these subregions, and is in fact, according to Bleeker, "the most 

 com.raon species of the genus in the Archipelago."" 



* Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vi, 1830, p. 289 : Trincomalee. 



* If I am correct in associating this species with L. nehzdosus, the following should be 

 added to the synonymy as known to us : — - 



Lethrinus opercularis Cuvier & Valenciennes, ibid., p. 289 ; Bleeker, Nat. & Geneesk. Arch. 

 Ned. Ind., ii, 1845, p. 522; id., Verh. Batav. Gen., xxiii, 1850, Sparoid., p. 14 & Midd-en 

 Oost-Java, p. 8 ; id., Nat. Tijds. Nederl. Ind.,ii, 1851, p. 471 ; id., ibid., iii, 1852, pp. 160, 

 444 ; id., Verh. Batav. Gen., xxv, 1853, Bengal, p. 38 ; id., Nat. Tijds. Nederl. Ind., viii, 

 1855, p. 344 ; id., ibid., xii, 1856, p. 214 ; id., ibid., xiii, 1857, pp. 371, 479 ; id., ibid., xv, 

 1858, p. 222 ; id., ibid., xvi, 1859, pp. 239, 406 ; id., ibid., xvii, 1859, p. 234 ; id., ibid., 

 xviii, 1859, p. 352 ; Giinther, Brit. Mus. Catal. Fish., i, 1859, p. 461 ; Bleeker, Act. Soc. 

 Sci. Indo-Neerl., viii, 1860, Siunatra, p. 20, Celebes, p. 27 ; id., Vei-sl. Akad. Amsterdam, 

 xii, 1861, p. 46 ; id., Nederl. Tijds. Dierk., i, 1863, pp. 152, 233, 242, 251, 268 ; id., ibid., 

 ii, 1865, pp. 187, 282 ; id., Versl. Akad. Amsterdam (2) ii, 1868, p. 291 ; id., Nederl. Tijds. 

 Dierk., iv, 1873, pp. 138, 337 ; Day, Fish. India, pt. i, 1875, p. 136 ; Bleeker, Atlas Ichth., 

 viii, pt. 2, 1877, p. 119, pi. cccxxxv, fig. 5 ; Ogilby, Mem. Austr. Mus., ii, 1889, p. 58 ; 

 Weber, in Semon, Zool. Fcrsch., 1895, p. 264 ; Waite, Rec. Austr. Mus., iv, 1901, p. 54 ; 

 id., ibid., V, 1904, pp. 166, 205 ; id., Synops. Fish. N. S. Wales, 1904, p. 34 ; Stead., Edib. 

 Fish. N. S. Wales, 1908, p. 79. 



