250 Transactions. — Zoology. 



giadually more numerous and larger, till we reach tlie ventral line, where 

 they become very large and well raised, possessing m the posterior half a 

 small hook turned backwards. 



PosTSGEiPT, 22ud December, 1877. — The following account taken from a 

 New Zealand newspaper about the middle of July, 1877, shows that another 

 specimen of Regalecus has been washed ashore on the west coast of this 

 island. From the short description in that paragraph it appears that the 

 fish in question is either a specimen of Regalecus imcifidis, or at least belongs 

 to a nearly allied species, the main difference being that the first portion of 

 the dorsal fin in the west coast specimen has ten spines instead of nine as 

 in the former. It is also interesting to observe that each of the two strong 

 ventral rays was two feet long, but no data are given from which we can 

 conclude that they were intact : — " An extraordinary fish was picked up on 

 the Little Waimangaroa beach, Karamea District, by Mr. Alexander 

 McDonald, on Tuesday last, of which the following description is furnished 

 by the Westport Times : — Length, 14 feet 4 inches ; girth, 2 feet 7 inches ; 

 one dorsal fin extending from head to tail ; from the top of the head there 

 extended ten feelers, each one foot in length, and two similar appendages, 

 about two feet in length, grew underneath the jaw, resembing in appearance 

 the feelers of a lobster ; on each side of the head there was one small fin, 

 and the gills of the fish resemble those of a turbot ; the body was of a 

 bright silvery hue and covered with fine scales, the shape of the body being 

 more flat than round ; the eyes resembled those of a cod-fish. When 

 found it had only recently been stranded, as it was not quite dead. This is 

 probably some large species of frost-fish." 



Akt. XXXII. — On the Habits of the New Zealand Grayling. 



By J. Rutland. 



[Read before the Otago Institute, 5th June, 1877.] 



Heaking that very little is positively known of the habits of the New Zealand 



grayling, I have collected information from various quarters, which, together 



with the results of my own observations, I now communicate. 



My attention was first directed to the grayling in 1853. Being then 

 resident in the Waimea (Nelson) I was informed that during the winter 

 months large numbers of these fish came into a smaU brook which ran close 

 to my house. This brook, about thirty feet wide, after draining part of the 

 flat bush land of Waimea South, emptied itself into the Waiti, a tributary 



