FISHES — WAITE. 103 



longer " expedition. The Bullrout is what may be termed a 

 Huvio-marinc species, ranging from the sea through brackish 

 waters to the rivers above tidal influence. Respecting the painful 

 wound caused by the dorsal and preorbital spines of this species 

 the author of the " Edible Fishes of New South Wales " (p. 08) 

 writes : — " No doubt any such wound would cause pain, but the 

 state of the sufferer's health, his nervousness, and his belief in 

 the superstition of its poisonous qualities are all factors which 

 must be taken into consideration. Personally the writer has 

 been ' stung ' on many occasions, both by the allied Fortescue 

 (Ceii,t7'opogon australis) and by the British Weaver ( I'rachiiiuti 

 vvpera) and never felt any more inconvenience than would result 

 from a similar stab of a knife. The fact is the wound is merely 

 a deeply punctured and viciously inflicted one, without any 

 venomous properties whatever." 



I also, on more than one occasion, have been stung by both the 

 Australian and British species mentioned, and, without being 

 either nervous or superstitious, my experience is that such wounds 

 are painful in the extreme. Further, I cannot agree with this 

 writer as to the absence of venomous properties. Although the 

 spines ai'e not perforated they are deeply grooved, and the grooves 

 are charged with a fluid-mucous possessing poisonous properties, 

 the truth of which is sufficiently apparent to the majority of 

 persons who have the misfortune to be stung. 



The largest example I have met with measures 265 mm. in 

 length. 



NEOSEBASTES AUSTRALIS, White. 



Fortescue. 



(Plate xxi.) 



Coitus australis, White, Voy. to New South Wales, 1790, p. 266. 

 Centropogon australis, Giinth., Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., ii., 1860, 

 p. 128. 



Station 23. 



Two examples were obtained in Newcastle Bight at the some- 

 what unusual depth of 16-19 fathoms, the species being better 

 known in shallow water cruising around the piles of piers and 

 jetties, where it is much dreaded by the wharf-fishers for the 

 painful wounds it inflicts with the dorsal and, more especially, 

 the preorbital spines. 



