1 04 Transactions. — Zoology. 



latei^al line of the same dark green shade, but as we advance from tlie head 

 towards the caudal fin becoming gi-adually lighter ; now and then vertical and 

 somewhat indistinct bands of a darker shade extending across the lateral line ; 

 of them the last, at the base of the caudal fin, is the darkest and most 

 conspicuous. Below lateral line pale olive green. Chin and belly white. 

 Pectoral, caudal, and ventral fins mottled dark olive green, with a somewhat 

 linear arrangement ; dorsal and anal fins mottled dark olive green in their 

 upper portion only. 



Art. XXT. — Notes on some New Zealand Fishes. 

 By Capt. F. W. Hutton, C.M.Z.S. 



Plates XVIII. , XIX. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 22nd Septemher, 1873.] 

 30. GASTEROCHISMA MELAMPUS, Richardson. 

 G. melampios, Richardson, Ereb. and Terr., p. 60, pi. 37. 

 Two specimens of this fish were received at the Colonial Museum last 

 June from Mr. Haldon, of Waikawa, in Otago, and, although they were not 

 in veiy good condition, the following description of them will prove acceptable. 



B. 4; D. 16 I g. VI.; A. 10. VI.; V. l 

 Length about four times that of the head, which is equal to the height of 

 the body ; snout one third of the length of the head, and nearly twice the 

 diameter of the eye, pointed, lower jaw longer ; head compressed ; opercular 

 apparatus very weak ; prseoperculum not covered with skin, free posteriorly ; 

 scales moderate, delicate, deciduous, cycloid ; dorsal spines nearly half as long 

 as the head, weak ; tinlets broad and rounded ; caudal deeply forked ; ventrals 

 one and a half times as long as the head, reaching to the anus, the rays 

 divided to the base ; pectorals less than half the length of the head. 



Above steel blue, with 6-8 vertical blackish bands ; below silvery ; a 

 silvery spot on the base of the caudal ; dorsal and anal white ; ventrals black ; 

 caudal blackish, edged outwardly with white. 



Kathetostoma monopterygium (Cat. Fish. N.Z., p. 23, No. 34). 

 An examination of several fresh specimens of our Cat-fish has enabled me 

 to recognize two distinct species at present confounded under this name. One 

 of these is certainly the Uranoscopus maculosus of Solander, and the other is, 

 I think, the TJranoscopus viaculatus of Forster. The first has a filament 

 in the mouth, while the second has not ; still they are so closely related tliat 

 I think it unadvisable to place them in distinct genera, and I adhere to my 



