EEPORT ON PEESEEVATION OF CERATODUS. 



By D. O'CO N N OR 



l^Read before the Royal Society of Queensland, September 12, 1896.^ 



To the President and Council of the Eoyal Society of Queensland. 



Gentlemen, 



I have the pleasure to inform you that the work of procuring 

 Ceratodus and transferring live specimens to new habitats which 

 you entrusted to me is finished. 



The fish, which were fairly abundant, were caught in the 

 Mary River, near Miva, excepting five which were taken in 

 Munna Creek. A total of one hundred and nine were caught. 

 Of these eleven escaped, twelve died soon after capture, and 

 nine in transit. Seventy-seven arrived safely at their destination; 

 eight have since died, leaving sixty-nine which may be regarded 

 as quite sufficient to ensure the success of the experiment. 

 During my first month at Miva only one Ceratodus was secured ; 

 this was kept in a tank seventeen days, during which time it did 

 not appear to eat. Having failed to obtain any more, and it 

 being the general opinion that the season had passed, I returned 

 to Brisbane and put the solitary specimen I brought in a pond 

 in the Botanical Gardens, where it remained fifteen months. It 

 was re-captured and sent to the Bowen Park Exhibition, where 

 it excited a good deal of interest. 



On 7th May, 1895, eight were put in the North Pine River, 

 about a mile above tidal influence. The next, a lot of five, were 

 on 17th November placed in a lagoon near the Albert River, on 

 the property of Messrs. Collins and Sons. On the 15th December 

 I took eight to Messrs. D. C. McConnel and Sons, Cressbrook ; 

 these were liberated in a dam which communicates with the 

 Brisbane River. 



