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., etc. 

 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, lith December, 1883.] 

 After heavy north-east gales molluscs of this class are not infrequently cast 

 ashore between Stoke and Eichmond, 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 tuber cut atus, but the 

 arms are more slender and tapering and very much larger than in that 

 species. 



Class CEPHALOPODA. 

 Family Octopodid^e. 

 Octopus communis, sp. nov. 



Body oval, stout, fan-shaped behind, smooth, without fins. Head large, 

 long, rounded. Eyes large, round, prominent. Arms long, tapering, un* 

 equal ; dorsal pair ^ 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, 



