212 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Contents of Stomach. — Walls Of abdominal cavity black in colour. 

 Stomach siphonal, and containing mass of brown granules. Intestine 

 full of olive-coloured softer matter. Pyl. csec, 59; but, as these are 

 small and delicate, and I used considerable pressure with back of knife 

 in removing fatty matters to facilitate counting, I may possibly have 

 removed a number without being aware of it. When cooked this pilchard 

 was most excellent to eat. In several smoked specimens of this fish as sold 

 in the Dunedin market I found, so far as possible to make them out, all 

 the marks correspond with those of fresh specimens above described. 

 Form of the head and gill-covers, striae, position of ventral fin, fin-rays, all 

 agree — the vertebra in two examples numbering 50 each ; but outline of 

 abdomen was distinctly serrated or marked by raised scales, due probably 

 to projection of dermo-kaemal plates after curing. 



A comparison of our New Zealand pilchard or Picton herring with 

 Yarrell's account of the English form shows such a close relationship as 

 almost amounts to identity of species. It is also very interesting to notice 

 how well designed certain parts are to fulfil their special functions, as the 

 transparent jelly-like disc or covering for the eye. The eye being well sunk 

 in the orbit beneath the plane of the cheek its range of vision would be very 

 limited were the orbit not likewise sunk. This being so it is also necessary 

 that the surrounding orbital bones should be gradually curved in to the 

 depressed eye. This secures ranges provision for which over the ante- 

 orbital bone is greater than over post-orbital, showing that the fish 

 needs to see more ahead than behind. Then covering the eye is the disc 

 I have mentioned, protecting the eye from injury, while it permits free 

 vision by its transparency, with direct vision in front of fish by refrac- 

 tion, and by its form and bulk giving symmetry and completeness to 

 the adjoining parts. From the difference in width of openings or slits 

 between the first set of fish examined and the last one, I should expect 

 that these fish have the power of opening and closing the slit at 

 pleasure. 



I have stated that the scales are tough and non-deciduous, and may add 

 that they are so wonderfully overlapped and wedged together as to form an 

 outer covering or coat of mail completely surrounding the trunk of the fish. 

 This protection is a very obvious part of the design, for the bones of the 

 skeleton are extremely fine and seem unequal (unassisted) to carrying the 

 fleshy parts of the body. The abdomen in particular is a most delicate 

 part, and was more or less injured in the fresh specimens examined by me, 

 a characteristic which I found extending to the viscera also, to the preven- 

 tion of my searches in that direction to some extent. And here again the 

 perfection of design appears, for along the abdominal outline where the 



