162 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 
conferred upon it. Photographic presentments of both the “bottle-nosed” male and 
normal female individuals of the Western Australian Snapper are reproduced in 
Plates XX VII. and XXIX. respectively. 
Brief consideration may now be given to those fishes frequenting the 
Australian seas and rivers, which, with regard to the area of their distribution, are 
essentially Australasian, Indo-Pacific, or at all events unrepresented in European 
waters. A front position among this considerable assemblage must undoubtedly be 
given to that family group, the Cirrhitide, which includes, par excellence, that 
most justly celebrated fish, the Hobart or Tasmanian Trumpeter, Latris hecateia. 
The known representatives of the genus Latris are entirely limited in their distribution 
to the seas of New Zealand, Tasmania, and the southern shores of the Australian 
Continent, while the particular species named is almost exclusively confined to the 
colder waters of Tasmania and New Zealand. The Hobart Trumpeter, in both 
contour and colour, is a most handsome fish. Like the Snapper of the adjacent 
colonies, it affords excellent sport with the hook and line, and in deep water, fifty or 
sixty fathoms, using a crawfish bait, is not uncommonly taken weighing as many 
pounds. In addition to the considerable quantities of this fish that are disposed 
of in the Hobart market, a large number are dispatched in both the fresh and 
smoked conditions to Sydney and Melbourne. 
The admirable practice is followed by the Hobart fishermen, as at Grimsby 
in England, of storing their catches in well-boats, and of transferrmg them on 
arrival in port to floating trunks. The Trumpeter, in common with many other 
species well adapted to this method of conservation, are in this manner kept alive 
to meet the fluctuating requirements of the local market; or any customer, if he 
should so desire, may avail himself of the opportunity of picking and choosing 
his own living fish. The life colours and distribution of the markings of the 
Trumpeter are very characteristic and attractive. In the diagnoses given in technical 
works on Ichthyology, the colour patterns as recorded of spirit-preserved examples 
are described as consisting of “four whitish longitudinal bands on a brown ground.” 
In life, the paler hues predominate, the ground colour of the body being a most 
delicate opaline tint, silvery white ventrally, and with shades of palest green and 
blue upon the sides and back. Three dark olive-green longitudinal bands, originat- 
ing immediately behind the head, traverse the upper part of the body. The 
top and bottom bands terminate independently at the base of the caudal fin, but 
the central one fuses with the lowermost one at a point corresponding with 
