DISTRIBUTION AND LOCATION 269 



nous, the cuchia, is confined to India and Burma, and Sym- 

 branchus and Monoptems occur. Lates and some species of 

 Nandidae are the only other spiny-finned fishes (Acanthoptery- 

 gians). 



The Australian region, including Celebes and New Guinea, 

 has the poorest fresh-water fish-fauna of all the regions of the 

 world. It has one lung-fish, Ceratodus, of the carp-like fishes 

 (Ostariophysi) only the cat-fishes (Siluridae) are represented by 

 a few species, the commonest being Copidoglanis tandanus. 

 The Osteoglossidae are represented by a genus peculiar to the 

 region, namely, Scleropages, which extends to Borneo. There 

 are two species of Chilobranchus belonging to the Sym- 

 branchidae. The most abundant fresh-water fishes are so-called 

 perches, members of the family Serranids, the most important 

 of which is the Murray cod, Oligorus macquariensis, which at- 

 tains to a weight of 50 lb., and the giant perch, Lates calcarifer, of 

 Queensland is almost as large. In the south of Australia and 

 in New Zealand occur members of two families of the pike Sub- 

 Order (Haplomi) which are found only in the southern tem- 

 perate zone ; they are the Galaxiidse and Haplochitonidae. 

 Eight species of Galaxias occur in New Zealand, one of them 

 at least descending to the mouths of rivers, in order to spawn ; 

 the fry are known as whitebait. Several species are found in 

 the south of Australia, several in Chili and Patagonia, and 

 one at the Cape of Good Hope. Of the Haplochitonidae, re- 

 presenting the trout of the northern hemisphere, one species of 

 Prototroctes occurs in Queensland, one in South Australia, and 

 a third in New Zealand. The only other native fish in the 

 rivers of New Zealand are lampreys, eels, i.e., a species of An- 

 guilla, and the New Zealand smelt Retropinna which ascends 

 from the sea to spawn. 



In the sea there are three regions differing greatly in their 

 physical conditions and in their fish-fauna, that is to say the 

 aggregate of species which inhabit them ; these three regions 

 are the littoral or coast region, the pelagic or surface of the 

 ocean, and the abyssal. The three regions are not completely 

 separated from each other as the fresh waters of South America 

 are separated from those of Africa, but are continuous with 

 each other, and the fauna of one is connected with that of the 

 others by intermediate forms living in intermediate regions. 



