198 Transactions.— Zoology. . 
It could be made by enterprising people a paying industry, as there 
are so many feeding grounds and plenty of fish. If any one were to go 
with a boat before high water to these places they could fill their boat very 
soon. 
The fish good for eating are hapuka, Oligorus gigas; rock cods, Percis 
colias; tarakihi, Chilodactylus macropterus; moki, Latris ciliaris, etc., ete. 
There are also two species of dolphin very plentiful, which could be easily 
secured and used for oil and their skin for leather. In fine weather the 
smaller species are there in hundreds similar to the common Delphinus 
delphis. I have seen the sound alive with these fish playing. 
The second and larger species similar to the Tursio, is not as plentiful. 
They go in small groups from two to a dozen steadily along, the dorsal fin 
the most time out of the water. They make a roaring noise like the bellow- 
ing of a bull, especially in the night. 
When I paddled from one place to another these fish would follow along- 
side my canoe. 
Art. XXI.—Description of a new Octopus. By James Park. 
| Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 14th December, 1883.) 
Arter heavy north-east gales molluscs of this class are not infrequently cast 
ashore between Stoke and Richmond, and during the fishing season great 
numbers are caught by the fishermen inside the Boulder Bank; but, except 
they are almost immediately secured, they are soon shrivelled up and beyond 
identification. In the present instance the specimen before you, which is a 
male Octopus, was captured near the Marine Baths, at the ** Port," in some 
four feet of water, and I was fortunate enough to obtain it in a very fine 
state of preservation. 
In general outline it somewhat resembles Octopus tuberculatus, but the 
arms are more slender and tapering and very much larger than in that 
species, 
Class CEPHALOPODA. 
ied OcroPoprpx. 
Octopus communis, sp. n 
Body oval, stout, fan- eae behind, smooth, without fins. Head large, 
long, rounded. Eyes large, round, prominent. Arms long, tapering, un- 
equal; dorsal pair 4 longer than ventral pair. The hectocotylus is shorter 
and more robust than the other arms, ending abruptly in a long, flattened - 
process with a deep longitudinal groove. Suckers in two rows, not opposite, 
