206 Transactions.— Zoology. 
Ocean towards the south pole, but which is separated from the east coast 
of Otago by a cold northerly littoral current. As the boundaries of these 
currents fluctuate a good deal according to the season and direction of the 
winds, a deviation of the warm southerly stream towards Otago at the time 
of the migration of the sprat would account for their occasional appearance 
as well as their disappearance. At present, however, there is not much 
more known of the great currents of the South Pacific Ocean, than of the 
habits of this little herring itself. 
Nore. ; 
Since the above was read, a good deal of interesting information not 
previously ascertained by me, has been kindly placed at my disposal rela- 
tive to above species. Itis from Mr. P. F. Stoddart and Mr. Cosgrove. 
Mr. Stoddart says: “ For years prior to 1875, when I was living near 
Moeraki, the sprat visited the Fish Reef regularly from March till May in 
incredible numbers, which were easily seen by us while fishing there, as 
they came close under our boat. They always disappeared on the approach 
of cold weather. The red cod which we caught on the reef were often 
found to be stuffed full of sprats,—indeed they were sticking out of their 
mouths.” The Fish Reef lies about three miles off shore. 
In a subsequent letter from the same gentleman, he adds :—** I have 
made enquiries about the sprats. Captain Liddle (who has been fishing at 
Moeraki for the last fifteen years) says, they are there every year in any 
quantity, about the reefs a mile from the shore. They begin to appear 
about January, but are most plentiful in March and April On two occa- 
sions during that period they came inshore, into Moeraki Bay, in dense 
masses, as they did also at Oamaru and Timaru. He could give me no 
information which way the shoal travels, as they seem to be all over the 
sea ; and accounts for their going close inshore, sometimes in dense masses, 
to other fish pursuing them. 
“Mr. Leggatt, who used to have the landing service at Port Moeraki 
and is now in Christchurch, also knows the fish very well and remembers his 
boys getting buckets full, left among the holes in the rocks by the ebb-tide, 
some four or five years ago. Captain Liddle says, that with a hoop-net, 
which he sinks a few feet at the stern of the boat and then throwing over 
some food, he can catch any quantity any year. There were plenty at 
Moeraki at the same time (May, 1882) these shoals were in Oamaru Bay, 
but they did not come close in the same." 
Mr. Cosgrove writes me :—* It makes its appearance on the east coast 
of the Otago Peninsula in the month of November and remains off the 
eoast of the South Island throughout the season, which is, so far as I 
can gather from searching enquiries and from personal observation, from 
