102 NEW SOUTH WALES 
CHAPTER VI. 
Our Fresh-water Food Fishes.. 
In such a dry climate as that of Australia, where the rivers are few, 
and except in winter mere sluggish narrow streams, itis not to be 
expected that our fresh-water fishes can be either numerous or abundant. 
For the colonists in the immediate neighbourhood they have a certain 
economical importance, but the fisheries do not employ many hands, nor 
are they ever likely to. The river system of the western side of the 
Dividing Range is confined to the Murray and its tributaries, of which 
only the Darling, Murrumbidgee, Lachlan, and Macquarie, can be called 
rivers, and of these some of the upper feeders run dry in seasons of 
severe drought. Outside the influence of these rivers, and in the far 
“western country, such a thing asa. fish is never seen. In the little 
creeks small cat-fish (Copidoglanis tandanus) is found. This affords the 
only sport that anglers can obtain, and the fish, one of the Siluride, 
forms a delicacy which is appreciated by those to whom fish is such a 
rarity. With regayd to the fish fauna of the waters of the western side 
of the range, itis very uniform ; the same genera and species are found 
in all of them. If there are any local peculiarities they are as yet 
unknown. Foremost amongst them as an article of diet is the “ Murray 
Cod,” of which there are two species ; they belong to the family of 
Perches and to the genus Oligorus. It is distinguished by having an 
oblong body covered with scales. The cleft of the mouth is rather 
oblique, the lower jaw being the longer. Teeth viliform, extending to 
the vomer and palatine bones, but with no canines. There is one long 
dorsal fin, the first eleven rays of which are spinous. The anal fin has 
three spines, and the tail is rounded. The preoperculum has a single 
margin, which is smooth or faintly toothed. Some of these fishes grow 
to an immense size, and they are found in the sea as well as rivers. 
One, O. terre-regine, Ramsay, goes by the name of the Groper in Queens- 
land. In the Brisbane River specimens are caught weighing over 160 
Ibs., and measuring more than 6 feet in length. A large species named 
O. gigas (the Hapuku of the Maoris), is caught off New Zealand, which 
reaches a weight of 100 Ibs. 
The Murray Cod. 
(Plate XLI.) 
Oligorus macquariensis, Cuv. and Val., which is the ‘ Kookoo- 
bul” of the Murrumbidgee natives, “ Pundy” on the Lower Murray. 
In this species the height of the body is four times and three quarters 
in the total length, the length of the head three and a-half, the diameter 
of the eye is one seventh of the latter. Preoperculum, supra-scapular 
and preorbital entire, pectoral and ventral fins short; fifth dorsal spine 
the longest ; second and third spine of the anal fin nearly equal ; colour 
greenish brown, with numerous small dark green spots ; belly whitish, 
but the colour varies much in different places. 
