I7tt EDIBLE FISHES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



HEMIRHAMPHUS REGULAEIS. 



Hemirhamphus regnlaris, Gnth. Catal. Fish. vi. p. 2(51, ISGG ; Casteln. Proc. 

 Liun. Soc. ??. S. Wales, iii. p. 391 ; Macloay, Catal. Austr. Pish. ii. p. 

 181 ; Woods, Pisher. N. S. Wales, p. 81, pis. xxxvii. {lower figure) and 

 sxxviii. 



Eiver Garfish. 

 Plate XLIIl. 



B. xi. D. 15. A. 17. Y. 6. P. 11-12. C. 15. L. lat. 58. L. tr. 8. Yert. 34/19. 



Len2:th of head ;3-20-3;33, of caudal fin 7-01), height of body lO-OO-lO'GG in 

 the total length : breadth of body l-33-l"50 in its height : length of lower jaw 

 beyond the extremity of the upper one half of the length of the head : the 

 length of the upper jaw, measured along the median line is from 1"40-1"60 

 in Its breadth at the base. Eye large, its diameter 1"40 to 1"G0 in the 

 postorbital portion of the head, and from 1"25-1'50 in the distance between 

 its anterior margin and the tip of the upper jaw : interorbital space flat, 

 •equal to or very little less than the diameter of the orbit. Height of pre- 

 orbital about four fifths of ita length. Maxilla broadly expanded behind, 

 the expanded portion entirely concealed by the preorbital when the mouth 

 isclosed, and ex.tending to beneath the anterior margin of the nasal fossa, which 

 is cordiform, with the posterior angle acute, and reaching to above the anterior 

 margin of the pupil. Both jaws with a broad band of small tricuspid teeth, 

 the median cusp being much the longest. The distance between the origin 

 of the dorsal and the base of the caudal fins is from 350 in the distance 

 between the same point and the tip of the upper jaw, or equal to the length 

 of the head without the lower jaw ; the anterior dorsal rays are equal in 

 length to those of the anal, and eight ninths of the distance between the 

 origins of the two fins : the anal commences on the same vertical plane as 

 the dorsal : ventral small, the distance between its origin and the base of 

 the caudal equal to that between the same point and the posterior margin 

 of the eye ; its length equal to that of the postorbital portion of the 

 head : pectorals pointed, from 2'G6-3'00 in the length of the head, and equal 

 to the distance between the anterior margin of the eye and the hinder margin 

 of the opercle : caudal fin moderately forked, the lower lobe a little the 

 longer ; the least height of the pedicle three eighths of the height of the 

 body. Scales on the anterior two thirds of the body deciduous, on the 

 last third persistent. 



Colors. — Back pale green, the upper surface of the head darker with 

 golden reflections; three narrow black vertebral streaks not extending back- 

 wards to the dorsal : two similar but irregular and broader streaks between 

 these and the broad lateral silvery band, which is bordered above by a 

 narrow orange streak ; a faint black sjiot at the base of the pectoral. 



The Eiver Garfish is said to deposit its ova in still lagunes or the brackish 

 water near the mouths of rivers among thick weeds to which the ova pro- 

 bably adhere by means of filamentous appendages ; as with its congener the 

 ova are of large size and consequently few in number. 



This species, probably through the uncertainty caused by the lax way in 

 which the trivial name is used in the Royal Commission Report, and which 

 laxity and its concomitant error has been perpetuated to the present day, is 

 frequently said to be a better flavored, fish than S. interrnedius ; this is not 

 the case, the flavor of the ocean species being undoubtedly much more deli- 

 cate than that of the pre^-ent species which being a permanent resident in 

 muddy estuaries and lagunes retains a flavor of its surroundings. 



