212 Transactions. — Zoology. 



one-third the length of the snout. Tip of snout to occiput two-fifths the 

 total length of the head measured to the hinder angle of the operculum. 

 The interorbital space is only slightly convex. Opercles are thin, with con- 

 centric striiB. The posterior margin of the operculum is almost straight, 

 oblique, the sub-opercular suture being at right-angles, and only slightly 

 sinuated. The sub-opercular is three times as long as broad. The ratio 

 of the length of the fins to the total length is as follows : — The length being 

 1-00; D. -125; P. -069; V. -100; A. -076; least depth of tail -125. The 

 caudal fin is slightly emarginate. The dentition is complete and powerful, 

 the intermaxillary mandibular and front vomerine teeth being the largest. 

 The maxillary teeth are arranged in pairs. The head of the vomer has a 

 group of three teeth, and three on each side of the body. The tongue is 

 armed with teeth arranged in the same manner and number as on the vomer. 



There are 120 perforated scales on the lateral line, which is prominent. 

 From the front origin of the dorsal to the lateral line there are 26 scales, 

 and from between the origin of the ventral and the lateral line there are 

 eighteen rows of scales. The scales are thin and rounded in posterior 

 outline. Immersed nacreous scales occur along the back from the nape to 

 beyond the dorsal. 



The snout and muzzle are olivaceous black. The crown and occiput 

 honey yellow. On the cheek and above the eye is a triangular patch of 

 brown. The gill-covers are silvery white wdth a dusky hue, and have five 

 dark spots, four on the operculum, and one on the pre-operculum. The 

 under parts as far as the vent are pure white. 



The nape and back dark blue-black, and the flanks bright silvery with a 

 purple shade. Diffuse and X-shaped black spots on the back and sides, 

 but only a few below the lateral line. Dorsal fin dusky brown with numer- 

 ous dark spots. Pectoral darkened toward the tip on the inner side. 

 Ventrals and anal white. Adipose and caudal dark coloured. 



The fish which is now exhibited was sent to me yesterday by Mr. 

 Greenfield, Secretary to the Acclimatization Society, Nelson, as being, 

 probably, a specimen of the Calif ornian salmon ( Salmo quinnat). It was 

 captured in Nelson Harbour, near to the mouth of the Maitai Stream, a 

 similar, but smaller, specimen of the same fish having been caught there a 

 few days previously. ; 



Californian salmon having been turned out, three years ago, in various 

 rivers entering Cook Straits and in the Nelson District, while no other 

 migratory salmonoid had ever been liberated, so far as is known, north of 

 Otago, it was not unnatural to suppose that this might be a harbinger of 

 the shoals of American salmon that are expected sometime to reappear on 

 our coasts, 



