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or New Zealand trumpeter, according to the original diagnosis, 

 are the fewer number of scales, 84 only, upon the lateral line, 

 and the small number, six only, of the unbrauched pectoral 

 rays. In other respects, except for the presence of an extra 

 dorsal spine, it corresponds with the ordinary silver bastard 

 trumpeter, Latris Forsteri. 



It will be found on reference to the structural formulas of 

 the several species of trumpeter presently submitted that the 

 fish forming the subject of this notice corresponds more closely 

 with the real trumpeter, L. hecateia, than with L. ciliaris, 

 though it cannot be precisely identified with any one of the 

 three generally recognised species belonging to the genus, 

 with which it has now been compared. It may be mentioned 

 here that two additional species are included in the trumpeter 

 genus by Castelnau, viz., Latris bilineata, and L. inornata, 

 while a third L. Ramsayi, has been described by J. D. Ogilby. 

 The structural characters of these three species, however, 

 agree so closely with those of the silver bastard, L. Forsteri, 

 the differences upon which they have been founded, relating 

 chiefly to colour, that they are regarded by many icthyoiogists 

 as probably local variations only of that species. With some 

 authorities the fish, now introduced, would probably be accepted 

 as the type of a new species, and as a matter of fact its 

 structural characteristics, more particularly with relation to 

 its dentition, invest it with more substantial qualifications for 

 such a distinction, than are found in either of the three 

 supplimentary species, last enumerated, established by 

 Castelnau and Ogilby. Were this variety obtainable in any 

 quantity and its structural formula as here recorded found to 

 be constant, I should be inclined also to associate it with a 

 distinct specific title. Taking into account, however, its 

 occurrence as an exceptional specimen, and giving full value to 

 the remarkable manner in which it combines the characteristics 

 of both the real and the silver bastard trumpeter, I find it 

 difficult to avoid the conclusion that it represents an accidental 

 case of hybridism between these two species. Parallel 

 instances of hybridism, as is now generally known, naturally 

 occur or may be brought about by artificial means among 

 diverse species of salmonidse. It may be further cited as a 

 circumstance in favour of this interpretation that the breeding 

 seasons of the silrer bastard, and of the real trumpeter, May 

 to July, and July and August, overlap one another, so that 

 the spawn of the one might be fertilised by the milt of 

 the other. The greatest obstacle to this proposed interpreta- 

 tion is, to my mind, associated with the character of the den- 

 tition, the number of vomerine teeth, two only, being so con- 

 siderably fewer than those of Latris hecateia. It might at the 

 same time be anticipated that the interbreeding of two allied 



