Parker. — On a Specimen of the Great Ribbon Fish. 285 



determination of the species. From information received from Mr. G. L. 

 Sise, I have no doubt that a large fish cast ashore near Moeraki about two 

 years ago belonged to the same genus, so that the specimen I am about to 

 describe makes the fifth known to have been found in this country within a 

 period of twenty-three years.* 



The species which has been most thoroughly worked out is R. banksii, 

 the subject of an excellent and well-illustrated paper by Hancock and 

 Embleton.f R. pacificus is figured and described at some length by von 

 Haast and Powell. \ Besides these papers, brief accounts in the works of 

 Giinther, Gray, Yarrell, and Cuvier || include all the information at my 

 disposal on the genus. There are, however, numerous references in the 

 " Catalogue of Fishes " to the works of Block, Cuvier and Valenciennes, 

 and other foreign ichthyologists. 



The published figures of Regalecus, like the descriptions, have in many 

 cases been either very incorrectly drawn, or taken from damaged specimens. 

 Nearly all are, however, valuable as showing more or less of such struc- 

 tures as the anterior dorsal and the ventral rays, the precise relations of 

 which in the various species are still extremely doubtful. As specimens 

 may at any time be cast upon our shores, I give in pi. xxiv. outline copies of 

 the head, and, in some cases* of the tail of all the figures I have been able 

 to find : these will, I hope, furnish any local naturalist, who may be for- 

 tunate enough to see an example of the great ribbon-fish, with some notion 

 of the chief differences between the species and of the points to be kept in 

 view in making descriptions or drawings. For the same reason the ensuing 

 description will be much fuller than would be necessary in the case of 

 any but an extremely rare and fragile fish. 



The following is a list of all the figures to which I have found 

 references, those reproduced in the present paper being marked with an 

 asterisk : — 



1. Regalecus gladius, Cuvier and Valenciennes, "Hist. Nat. des Poissons." 



2.* ,, ,, Cuvier, " Begne Animal " (Poissons), pi. 69. 



3. ,, telum, Cuvier and Valenciennes, op. cit. 



4.* ,, banksii, Hancock and Embleton, he. cit., pi. 1 and 2 (copied 

 in Yarrell's " British Fishes "). 



* The so-called Eegalecus jacksonensis of Eamsay (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 

 vol. v., p. 631, pi. xx.) is certainly wrongly named ; it is either a large Trachypterus or 

 belongs to a new genus. 



t Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 2 ser., iv., 1849, p. 1. 



t Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. x., 1877, p. 246 ; and vol. xi., 1878, p. 269. 



|| Giinther, op. cit.; J. E. Gray, "On the British Specimens of Regalecus,'" Proc. Zool. 

 Soc, 1849, p. 80, and Ann. and Mag. N.H., 2 ser., vol. v., 1849, p. 501 ; Yarrell, " British 

 Fishes," p. 300 ; Cuvier, " Begne Animal" (Poissons), p. 148. 



