ON THE (JOMMON WHITING OF MOUETOX BAY 



[SilUujo I'xtssensis) . 



(Plates VIII.— XIV.) 



By JAS. R. TOSH, M.A., B. Sc. 



Government Marine Biologist, Queensland. 



[Read before the Royal Societij of Queensland, 16th November, 1902.] 



Sillago Bassensis, Cuv. & Val. Poiss. III., p. 412. 

 Synonyms. — S. Terrae-Reyinae. Cast., Proc. Lin. Soc, 

 N.S.W., vol. IL, p. 232. 

 S. ciliata. Gunth. Cat. Fishes II,, p. 245. 

 S. de Bass. Quoy and Gaymard, voy. 



Astrolabe, Poiss., pi. I., fig. 2. 

 •S. Basiensis. Cast. Proc. Lin. Soc, N.S,W., 

 vol. III., p. 380. 



Local names — whiting, trumpeter whiting. There has 

 been some confusion as to this species. Cuvier and Valenciennes 

 give the fin formula as D. 11 — ^1/18, A. 1/12, and immediately 

 thereafter, " II y a deux epines a son anale." 



Count Castelnau — loc. cit. — describes as .S'. Terrae-Reijinae, 

 a whiting caught in great numbers in Moreton Bay with this 

 formula, D. 10—1/18, A. 2/15, L. lat. 64, but in the next 

 volume of the same publication he goes back to V. Bassensis. 



Dr. Gunther under the name S. ciliata gives a description 

 that fits the common Moreton Bay whiting, but Cuvier and 

 Valenciennes, who established the species, say distinctly it has 

 no silvery streak along the side. This streak Gunther adds, 

 and as it stands his description of S. ciliata, fits S. Bassensis 

 better than any I have seen of the latter species. 



