TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 309 
4. Species of Victorian Lampreys. By J. A. Leacn, D.Sc. 
Richardson (1848) was the first to name an Australian lamprey (Petromyzon 
mordaz). 
ea in the British Museum Catalogue (1851), made Richardson’s specimen 
the type of his genus Mordacia, and made two other Australian lampreys the 
types of his genera Geotria and Velasia. 
Giinther, in ‘The Catalogue of Fishes in the British Museum’ (1870), 
accepted Mordacia mordax, but included Velasia in the genus Geotria. Giinther 
later gave the name (Greotria allportii to a Tasmanian specimen. Ogilby and 
Regan both include this species in Geotria australis. 
Count Castlenau (1872) created two new genera founded on immature forms, 
thus increasing the Australian species to six. Ogilby (1894), in ‘A Monograph 
of the Australian Marsipobranchii,’ reduced the species and genera to three. 
He revived Gray’s genus Velasia and named the Australian form V. stenostoma, 
though he did not specify characters to separate it from V. chilensis. 
Plate included Velasia in Geotria, but separated G. stenostoma from 
G. chilensis ; he considered that both occur in Australia. 
Regan, in ‘A Synopsis of the Marsipobranchs of the Order Hyperoartii’ 
(1911), placed the Australian species in G. stenostoma and restricted the species 
G. chilensis to South America. He created a new species (G. saccifera) for a 
New Zealand specimen of the pouched form. 
An examination of forty-six specimens of lampreys in the University Museum 
and National Museum, Melbourne, showed two species of Mordacia, and that a 
new species of Geotria is required for specimens intermediate between the 
broad-headed, pouched form and the narrow-headed Velasia form; as these 
connect the two extremes it is unnecessary to retain Velasia as a separate 
genus. 
The great variation in the chief characters, and the small number of 
lampreys available for examination, are undoubtedly the chief causes of the 
creation of so many species, and the discarding of these by subsequent workers. 
The horny teeth are easily removed and the appearance of the mouth after 
their removal is different. The state of distension of the mouth revealing the 
whole of the teeth or the points only of the tongue teeth and supraoral teeth is 
important in determining the appearance of these structures. Even the teeth 
of the supraoral lamine, a generic characteristic, at least, vary. Plate figures a 
Geotria with five cusps instead of four on the supraoral lamina. One Mordacia 
examined has four pointed cusps on one lamina, while the lamina of the other 
side has three. Castlenau said : ‘I find the greatest difficulty in the determina- 
tion of the Victorian fishes of this family. . . . The most important character, 
the dentition, seems to be subject to the most extraordinary variations; in fact, 
I cannot find it exactly similar in two specimens.’ 
Regan used the relation of the length of the first dorsal fin to the distance 
between the two dorsal fins as one of three distinguishing characters. In six 
specimens of G'eotria chilensis taken alive during an eel fare at the Hopkins 
River Falls near Warrnambool, the interspace varied from -6 of the length of the 
fin to 1-3 times the length, a variation of over 100 per cent. Regan used this as 
one of three variable characters when separating nine specimens of Geotria into 
four species. 
Ogilby regarded the presence of pores on Velasia as a generic character. 
Pores occur on all the specimens of Geotria and Velasia examined. On one large 
pouched Greotria australis the pores form a definite ‘lateral line.’ Plate figured 
pores on each species he recognised, 
The pouch is a puzzle. It is not a secondary sexual character for it occurs in 
both sexes. 
It seems necessary to recognise five species of Victorian lampreys. 
5. Notes on the Ringing of Birds. By BE. D. pe Hamen,. 
_Aluminium bands of different sizes stamped with the address ‘ Witherby, 
High Holborn, London,’ and also bearing a distinctive number, are bent into an 
