IQ2 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



conferred upon it. Photographic presentments of both the "bottle-nosed" male and 

 normal female individuals of the Western Australian Snapper are reproduced in 

 Plates XXVII. and XXIX. respectively. 



Brief consideration may now be given to those fishes frequenting the 

 Australian seas and rivers, which, with regard to the area of their distribution, are 

 essentially Australasian, Indo-Pacific, or at all events unrepresented in European 

 waters. A front position among this considerable assemblage must undoubtedly be 

 given to that family group, the Cirrhitidfe, which includes, par excellence, that 

 most justly celebrated fish, the Hobart or Tasmanian Trumpeter, Latris Iiecateia. 

 The known representatives of the genus Latris are entirely limited in their distribution 

 to the seas of New Zealand, Tasmania, and the southern shores of the Australian 

 Continent, while the particular species named is almost exclusively confined to the 

 colder waters of Tasmania and New Zealand. The Hobart Trumpeter, in both 

 contour and colour, is a most handsome fish. Like the Snapper of the adjacent 

 colonies, it affords excellent sport with the hook and line, and in deep water, fifty or 

 sixty fathoms, using a crawfish bait, is not uncommonly taken weighing as many 

 pounds. In addition to the considerable quantities of this fish that are disposed 

 of in the Hobart market, a large number are dispatched in both the fresh and 

 smoked conditions to Sydney and Melbourne. 



The admirable practice is followed by the Hobart fishermen, as at Grimsby 

 in England, of storing their catches in well-boats, and of transferring them on 

 arrival in port to floating trunks. The Trumpeter, in common with many other 

 species well adapted to this method of conservation, are in this manner kept alive 

 to meet the fluctuating requirements of the local market ; or any customer, if he 

 should so desire, may avail himself of the opportunity of picking and choosing 

 his own living fish. The life colours and distribution of the markings of the 

 Trumpeter are very characteristic and attractive. In the diagnoses given in technical 

 works on Ichthyology, the colour patterns as recorded of spirit-preserved examples 

 are described as consisting of " four whitish longitudinal bands on a brown ground." 

 In life, the paler hues predominate, the ground colour of the body being a most 

 delicate opaline tint, silvery white ventrally, and with shades of palest green and 

 blue upon the sides and back. Three dark olive-green longitudinal bands, originat- 

 ing immediately behind the head, traverse the upper part of the body. The 

 top and bottom bands terminate independently at the base of the caudal fin, but 

 the central one fuses with the lowermost one at a point corresponding with 



