VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF HOUTMAN'S ABROLHOS. 485 



Marine Mammals. — No conclusions can be drawn from the presence of 

 the Seal, as it is, or was, found all round the western half of the continent. 



Reptiles. — The Green Turtle, plentiful in the north-west, has not been 

 recorded from farther south than the Abrolhos. 



Fish. — The fish-fauna of the north-west coast of Australia is still too little 

 known to allow of a very complete comparison of the northern and southern 

 forms found at the Abrolhos. Sixty-seven species are recorded from the 

 group, of which 5 are not at present known from any other locality, and 4 

 more do not appear to have been found on the west coast of the mainland. 

 Of the remaining 58, 14 are found generally along the coast-line, 34 do not 

 appear to have been found farther north than the Abrolhos, and 10 are not 

 known from farther south. Of these 10 species, two, Epineplielus merra and 

 Lethrinus opercularis, have been obtained as far south as New South Wales 

 on the east coast of Australia, so that their most southerly record on the 

 west coast is not remarkable. The remaining 8 northern forms are as 

 follows : — Lates calcarifer (N. Australia to India), Lutianus chrysotcenia 

 (N.W. Australia through Malay Archipelago to Nicobar Islands), Scolopsis 

 bimaculatus (N. Australia to China, India, and Bed Sea), Thalassemia lunare, 

 and T. aneitense (N. Hebrides, Norfolk I., and Lord Howe I. to N.W. 

 Australia), Congrogadus subducens (N.W. and N. Australia), Synanceja 

 homda (N. Australia to India), Coryzicldhys diemensis (N.W. and N. 

 Australia). 



These 8 species certainly appear to range further south on the west coast 

 of Australia than they do on the east, but there is no good evidence that 

 they occur much further south on the Abrolhos than the}' do on the mainland. 

 From the next area northward of whos3 fish anything is known, Shark's Bay, 

 at least 4 of these species have been obtained, viz., Lutianus chrysotamia, 

 Thalassoma lunare and T. aneitense, and Synanceja horrida. 



It will be worth while to quote here Saville Kent's summary for contrast 

 with the foregoing facts. He states (14) — " The fish fauna of Houtman's 

 Abrolhos was found, as might be anticipated in virtue of its essentially 

 migratory constituents and its proximity to areas of relatively cool water, an 

 interesting admixture of both tropical and temperate species. Conspicuous 

 among the fishes indigenous to the temperate Australian sea-board may be 

 mentioned such species as the Schnapper {Pagrus major), the Sergeant Baker 

 (Aulopus purpurissatus), Australian Whiting (Sillago ciliata), Yellow-tail 

 (Seriola gigas), and a species of what in the Sydney market would be 

 designated a Morwong {Chilodactylus) . Characteristic tropical fish were, on 

 the other hand, specially represented by innumerable varieties of Parrot- 

 fishes, Labridaj and Scarida?. Many of these, it is interesting to observe, 

 such as species of Julis and Pseudoscarus, had not been met with by the 

 writer farther north on the Western Australian coast, but were familiar to 



