Natural History of Victoria. 149 
five feet), its abundant distribution everywhere through the 
colony, and the fatal venom of its bite (frequently killing dogs 
and occasionally men), is the “ Brown Snake” of the colonists — 
the Pseudonaja nuchalis, closely related to the Naja or Cobra of 
India. The statement published in Melbourne some years ago 
of the occurrence of a species of true Boa in Victoria only rested 
on a mistaken determination of the common Carpet-Snake (Mo- 
relia vartegata),in which the obvious characters which distinguish 
the Pythons of India, Africa, and Australia from the true Boas, 
confined to America, were overlooked. 
In the class of Fishes many species remain yet to be deter- 
mined. The more important species used as food are the 
“ Schnapper ” of colonists (Pagrus unicolor), abundant and often 
of great size, with large numbers of which the market is regu- 
larly supplied, and which is caught and dried in great quantities 
by the Chinese fishermen in Hobson’s Bay, and supplied to 
their countrymen on the various gold-fields. The next most 
important species, from its being almost equally abundant at 
times in the market, and of equally large size and superior flavour, 
is the great Cod-perch, the “ Murray-cod ” of the colonists—the 
Grystes Peel of Mitchell, or Oligorus Macquariensis of modern 
writers. A very much larger (occasionally five feet in lengt®) 
and finer fish for the table, only an occasional visitor however, 
is the “ King Fish ” of colonists, which seems to me completely 
identical with the great“ Maigre ” of the Mediterranean—Sciena 
aquila. Dr. Giinther, the most recent European writer on 
ichthyology, in hisGeneral Catalogue of Acanthopterygian Fishes, 
states that the family Scienide, to which this fish belongs, has 
never been found in Australia. The fishes commonly called 
“Mullet ” (Dajanus Diemensis) and “ Whiting” (Sillago pune- 
tata) by the colonists are common in the fish-shops for the table, 
together with three species of “ Flathead,” Platycephalus nema- 
tophthalmus, P. tasmanius, and P. levigatus, which are caught 
abundantly in the bay at all times. Another tolerably good table- 
fish is known to the colonists, and is found in the market under 
the name of “ Pike,” though, like all the other fishes bearing the 
names of English species, it has little resemblance and no affinity 
to the fish of that name in Europe: it is the Sphyrena obtusata 
and S. Nove Hollandie. The so-called “ Herring ” of the fisher- 
men is the Centropristis Georgianus, with which the market is 
also abundantly supplied. The “ Baracoota,” which visits us 
regularly, and is in some request for the table, is certainly the 
Cape of Good Hope Thyrsites atun. The small Ling, the Lota 
breviuscula, is occasionally procured for food on the coast, but is 
chiefly remarkable for the old full-grown fish (about a foot long) 
having, two or three years ago, been stated by some fishermen 
