Pisces.] 



SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



591 



of my presence, have searched all the crannies large enough to admit their heads. 

 Many times thereafter I attempted to entice the fish outside a chink ; it was, how- 

 ever, only when the bait was actually dropped 

 into a crevice that it was taken. I found 

 Bovichtus variegatus also living in the crannies. 

 One I had hooked was immediately swal- 

 lowed by a large Notothenia, and I thus ob- 

 tained both specimens, 



I found small Notothenias living in masses 

 of seaweed in shallow water ; they are of 

 sluggish habit, bite freely, but do not show 

 fight when hooked. When young they are 

 quite fearless, and will follow a bait to the 

 surface of the water. 



Wherever sunken masses of rocks were 

 found Notothenias were procured. The sur- 

 vivors of the " Dundonald " wreck told me 

 that they had not been able to catch fish, 

 and they came to the conclusion that this 

 was to be accounted for by the presence of 

 sea^s. 



The following is a description of a 

 medium-sized individual : — 



B. VI ; D. VI, 30 ; A., 26 ; V. I., 5 ; 

 P., 18; C, 11+6. Vert., 18+26 = 44. 



Length of head, 3-2 ; height of body, 

 4-0; length of caudal, 4-8 in the total length. 

 Diameter of eye, 5-6 ; interorbital width, 3-2 

 in the length of the head. The maxillary 

 extends to below the third fifth of the eye ; 

 the lower jaw is somewhat longer than the 

 upper ; the gill-membranes are free from the 

 isthmus for a short space. The gill-rakers 

 are very short, 17 in number on the first arch, 

 13 being on the lower limb. 



The head is much depressed, one-half 

 wider than deep ; a broad rounded ridge 

 arises on each side of the snout, and passes 

 backwards over the eye towards the upper 

 angle of the opercle ; interorbital space other- 

 wise flat. A cross-ridge connects the two 

 branches in advance of the eyes. The eyes 

 are sublateral, and the upper border of each 

 is formed by the ridge above mentioned. 

 The opercle bears two flat spines. The gape 

 is almost horizontal, the mouth wide, and 

 the lips thick and reflexed. The'single nostril is in a wide and long tube, provided 



Fig. 24. — Notothenia microlepidota, Hutton. 



