218 Transactions. —Zoology. 
diameter of the eye in advance. Interorbital space equal to the length of 
the snout. Palatine teeth confined to an anterior patch only. Operculum 
with a long spine over the shoulder directed backwards ; head naked. The 
dorsal commences above the anterior portion of the root of the pectoral, and 
the rays both of it and the anal project beyond the membrane. Anus, with 
a papilla, but no claspers. 
Brownish, paler on theabdomen. Total length of the specimen 8 inches. 
Collected by Mr. C. H. Robson, at Cape Campbell. The type is in the 
Colonial Museum, Wellington, 
Art. XXVIII.—Notes on the = abits of the Frost Fish —-* caudatus). 
y C. H. Rozson. 
[Read before the Sees Pithaaghiead Society, 6th sa caie, 1875. J 
Turse remarks on the habits of the Frost Fish are presented to the 
Philosophical Society of Wellington, not so much in the belief that they 
shed any great amount of light upon a hitherto obscure subject, as in the 
hope that they may incite other members, who have opportunities of domg 
so, to make observations, so that we shall at last find out why it is that 
this curious fish commits suicide, or appears to do so. Dr. Hector, in his 
notes on the edible fishes, attached to Captain Hutton’s ‘‘ Catalogue of the 
Fishes of New Zealand,” and under the head of the Frost Fish, or Hiku of 
the Maoris, remarks, “‘ Nothing is definitely known of the habits of this 
singular fish, or why it should be cast up on the land, the probability being 
that, on the calm nights, when the sea is smooth, it pursues its prey too 
_ close to the shore, and is left by the long swell during ebb tide.” This 
hypothesis is, I venture to think, though very ingenious, incorrect. It is 
true that the Frost Fish usually comes on shore during the cold moon- 
light nights of winter, but it also frequently lands in Clifford Bay, near Cape 
Campbell, during the daylight, always when it is calm or with a southerly 
wind, and smooth water. It has been my good fortune to witness several 
such landings, and though unable to determine the reason of them, I can 
state positively that the fish is not cast up by the sea, but that it deli- 
berately forces itself on shore, selecting a shallow sandy beach for that 
purpose. My first thought was that it came to rid itself of some external 
parasite, by scouring on the sand; but a careful examination of some fish 
thrown out of the water by hand, before they could touch the sand, showed 
me that this was not the case, and that the only parasite with which the Frost 
Fish seems to be troubled, is an internal one, of which I send herewith a 
Pee reat 
Pavia na 
