188 Prof. M‘Coy on the Recent Zoology 
got four specimens from Hobson’s Bay for the museum ; it is 
too rare, however, to have a popular name or be eaten. 
Of the family Clupeid, or herrings, there is only one of 
much importance in our seas. A specimen of this was first 
brought to me in August 1864, from a small shoal, then seen 
for the first time in Hobson’s Bay, and quite unknown to the 
fishermen. It was supposed by the sender to be the “ Yarra 
herring ” or “ grayling” gone out to sea; but, on examination, 
I found it was the Clupea melanosticta of Temminck, or the 
species of pilchard so abundant on the shores of Japan. In the 
same month in the succeeding year, they appeared in greater abun- 
dance in the bay, and were caught by thousands for the market. 
After remaining for a few weeks they disappeared until the same 
time in 1866, when they arrived in such countless thousands that 
carts were filled with them by simply dipping them out of the sea 
with large baskets; hundreds of tons of them were sent up the 
country to the inland market, and through the city for several 
weeks they were sold for a few pence the bucketful; while the 
captains of ships entering the bay reported having passed through 
closely packed shoals of them for miles. They may probably 
be now expected every year as a very important addition to the 
food-fishes of the country. I imagine some alteration of the 
bed of the sea, from the earthquake disturbances north of 
Australia about that time, may have facilitated or induced the 
extension of the shoals in such unusual quantities from Japan to 
our coasts. Duperrey (or Lesson and Garnot) found it in New 
Zealand ; and Cuvier and Valenciennes referred their specimen 
to the genus Alausa. I find, however, that the authors of the 
‘ Histoire des Poissons’ were in error, and Temminck in the 
right, in the former assigning five, and the latter seven, gill- 
rays; and it has also a row of teeth on the tongue, as was cor- 
rectly stated by Temminck and erroneously denied by Cuvier 
and Valenciennes. ‘The fish is therefore a Meletia, and not an 
Alausa, and should be referred to as the Meletta melanosticta 
(Temm. sp.). A true anchovy I find in great abundance in Hob- 
son’s Bay; it is the Engraulis australis (Wh. sp.), and if iden- 
tical, as Cuvier supposes, with all the synonyms he groups 
under his E. Brownii, would be almost a cosmopolitan species. 
The Chatoesus come is occasionally to be found in the market. 
Of the family Galaxide are several interesting species in our 
rivers, going under the vulgar names of “gudgeon” and 
“trout.” The species of Galaxias bearing the latter name in 
the Yarra and the Gippsland rivers is a beautiful new species, 
Galaxias ocellatus (M‘Coy), marked with large circular eye-like 
spots, representing closely the G. truttaceus of Tasmania. The 
species called popularly “ gudgcon ” in the Yarra is the Galaxias 
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