FISHES 



267 



Fishes. 



the typical genua Bufo is lacking; but in the tree-frogs (Hylidce) the widely 

 spread Australian Hyla ccendea is the largest local representative of the typical 

 group. On the other hand, true frogs of the family Ranidce enter the region 

 only in the Cape York Peninsula. Finally, the ccecilians, or burrowing snake-like 

 amphibians, are absent from the whole Australasian region. 



Very brief mention must suffice for the fishes of Australia, from 

 among which, in common with the southern hemispheres in general, 

 the salmon tribe (Salmonidce) is entirely absent, while the essential southern genus 

 Galaxias, of which one kind is marine, is represented by a single species. The 

 so-called Dawson River salmon (Osteoglossum leichardti) is a near relative of the 

 gigantic arapaima of the Amazons, and is the third member of a genus of which the 

 other two are respectively Malay and South American. Most noteworthy of all is 

 the Australian lung-fish (Ceratodus, or Neoceratodus, forsteri), which is likewise a 

 Queensland fish, as it represents at the present day an absolutely unique type, and 



W, ... 



AUSTRALIAN LUNG-FISH. 



thus forms a parallel to the egg-laying mammals of the same region. These 

 strange fishes, which grow to a large size, take their generic name from the 

 presence on the palate and the opposing portion of the lower jaw of a pair of large 

 dental plates, somewhat crescentic in shape, and carrying several strong and 

 prominent ridges. Teeth of a similar type occur in the Triassic and Oolitic forma- 

 tions of Europe and India, and thus indicate the extreme antiquity of this group 

 of fishes. Like the very different lung-fishes of Ethiopian Africa and tropical 

 South America, the Queensland species is furnished with both lungs and gills, so 

 that it is capable of living either out of or in the water. In addition to these 

 altogether peculiar and characteristic species reference may be made here to the 

 curious archer-fish (Toxotes jaculator), a fresh-water species ranging from the Indo- 

 Malay countries to Australia and New Zealand, and the typical representative of 

 the family Toxotidce. These fishes have the power of squirting drops of water at 

 insects on the vegetation on the banks of rivers, which are knocked by a success- 

 ful shot into the water, when they are seized and eaten by the fish. 



