104 Transactions.— Zoology. 
lateral line of the same dark green shade, but as we advance from the head 
towards the caudal fin becoming gradually lighter ; now and then vertical and 
somewhat indistinct bands of a darker shade extending across the lateral line ; 
of them the last, at the base of the caudal fin, is the darkest and most 
conspicuous. Below lateral line pale olive green. Chin and belly white. 
Pectoral, caudal, and ventral fins mottled dark olive green, with a somewhat 
linear arrangement; dorsal and anal fins mottled dark olive green in their 
upper portion only. 
Авт. XX I.— Notes on some New Zealand Fishes. 
Ву Capt. F. W. Ноттох, C.M.Z.S. 
Plates XVIIL, XIX. 
[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 22nd September, 1873.] 
ЗО. GASTEROCHISMA MELAMPUS, Richardson. ` 
G. melampus, Richardson, Ereb. and Terr., p. 60, pl. 37. 
Two specimens of this fish were received at the Colonial Museum last 
June from Mr. Haldon, of Waikawa, in Otago, and, although they were not 
in very good condition, the following description of them will prove acceptable. 
EX, D Hj, YL; А 10 VI VL 
Length about four times that of the head, which is equal to the height of 
the body; snout one third of the length of the head, and nearly twice the . 
diameter of the eye, pointed, lower jaw longer; head compressed ; opercular 
apparatus very weak ; preopereulum not covered with skin, free posteriorly ; 
scales moderate, delicate, deciduous, cycloid ; dorsal spines nearly half as long 
as the head, weak ; finlets broad and rounded ; caudal deeply forked ; ventrals 
one and a half times as long as the head, reaching to the anus, the rays 
divided to the base ; pectorals less than half the length of the head. 
Above steel blue, with 6—8 vertical blackish bands; below silvery; a 
silvery spot on the base of the caudal ; dorsal and anal white ; ventrals black ; 
caudal blackish, edged outwardly with white. 
Kathetostoma monopterygium (Cat. Fish. N.Z, p. 23, No. 34). 
An examination of several fresh specimens of our Cat-fish has enabled me 
to recognize two distinct species at present confounded under this name. One 
in the mouth, while the second has not ; Still they are so closely related that 
I think it unadvisable to place them in distinct genera, and I adhere to my 
