242 Transactions. — Zoology. 



space convex ; gape straight, almost inferior, its length being less than the 

 intcrorbital distance ; mouth has tumid reflexible lips ; both jaws armed with 

 several closely set rows of small tricuspid lancet teeth ; patch of setaceous 

 teeth on palate and on pharynx ; tongue very short, smooth j four nostrils, 

 anterior pair with tubular processes ; prreoperculum entire j operculum with a 

 shallow notch ; no pores about the head. 



Both dorsals are set on a fleshy base ; the two first spines of the doi'sal are 

 short, being less than the diameter of the eye ; fifth spine is longest, and two 

 and a half times in the height ; fifth ray of soft dorsal the longest, and equal 

 to spinous ; length of soft dorsal is nine thirteenths of an inch. 



Anal with fourth ray longest, the base being short by one third of first 

 dorsal, with one spinous and one simple ray ; caudal straight, the rays being 

 equal to half the base of first dorsal ; pectoral with six or seven simple and 

 partly free rays, the middle ray being the longest ; ventral "svith one thick 

 simple ray and five divided rays, the third being the longest. 



Scales small, oblong, cycloid. 



Colour uniform, but darker above and about the head ; rich olive-brown 

 in vermiform marblings on a yellowish-grey ground, resembling a laminarian 

 sea- weed encrusted with Flustra and Sinrorhis. 



Stomach elongated cylindrical, with thick rugose walls, and half the length 

 of the abdominal cavity ; liver forms a collar-shaped mass round the superior 

 end; three short pyloric cseca; intestine membranous, and five times the length 

 of the abdominal cavity ; urinary organ very large, exceeding the liver in 

 bulk ; stomach and intestines full of corallines and sea-weed. 



Largest specimen — total length, 22 inches. 



The foregoing description is from several specimens caught in a trammel 

 net by His Excellency the Right Hon. Sir James Fergusson, Bart. ; Pickers- 

 gill Harbour, Dusky Bay, 3rd February, 1874. 



Tliis species resembles the fish described by Dr. Haast as //. donaldii 

 (Trans. N. Z. I., V., p. 272) ; but there is no doubt that it is the same fish 

 that was got by Captain Cook's expedition, figured by Banks and Solander 

 and described by Sir John Richardson, as I have found it on all parts of the 

 coast, and specially abounding round the headlands from the Kidnappei*s to 

 East Cape where Captain Cook's specimen was obtained. It is caught in 

 large numljcrs by the natives in the deep runlets excavated by the sea in the 

 chalk marl strata which form the coast line, and for this j)ur}iose they use a 

 peculiar net called the koko. This is a largo scoop made with a bag-net 

 suspended between two poles. With the rising tide this net is placed so as to 

 block up one of the narrow runlets, and the fish arc chased into the net from 

 their hiding places among the kelp. Its llcsh is coarse, with a rank flavour. 



