SKIPPERS AND FLYERS. 59 
In color it is greenish above, being darker towards the 
head. The lower half is of a dirty whitish tint; or, when 
fresh, a semi-transparent, pale, yellowish-green. There is a 
broad silvery band on each side. As in the other garfishes, 
the end of the beak and the membrane below it are very 
brightly tinted. 
Skipper Garfish (Scombresox forsteri). 
This fish, though at present rather an uncommon visitor 
to our fish markets, is one of those which will probably at 
times be brought in in very considerable numbers when our 
coastal ocean waters are systematically worked. It is a 
purely pelagic species, and does not often penetrate the 
harbours or estuaries. It attains commonly a length of 
about 12 or 13 inches. 
During November, 1906, immense shoals of half-grown 
Skipper Garfish were present in our waters, and a fisherman 
who captured a number just inside the Port Jackson heads, 
considered that he could have obtained twenty boatloads in 
the one haul. 
This species may be identified by the following char- 
acters:—The color of the back is a deep bluish-green or an 
olive-green; while the belly and sides are brilliantly silvery. 
It possesses a number of small finlets behind both the dorsal 
and anal fins (somewhat similar to those of the Mackerel 
family). Instead of there being only one jaw produced so 
as to form a beak, as in the other garfishes, in the Skipper 
both are prolonged, and are thin and flexible, reminding one 
somewhat of the beak of the bird known as the Avocet; 
excepting that the beak is not curved as it is in the bird 
mentioned. 
Flying Fishes. 
Two species of edible Fryinc FisHEs are at present 
known to occur, at times in considerable numbers, in the 
waters of New South Wales. The larger of these is Cypstlurus 
melanocercus ; and this attains a length of about 16 inches. 
