187 
finds tliat Australian specimens present constant diiTerential 
characters in the number of the rays, he forms with them a 
named variety (Antipodum). In following out this system, as 
the same ichthyologist has, also, in this genus named Siibgenera, 
a single specimen would have two generic and two specific names, 
which would, I should think, he sufilcient to disgust the most 
fervent student from zoological study. 
In all cases Antarcticus cannot he Antipodim, as Dr. G-unther 
says that it has no teeth at the lower jaw, nor a silvery hand 
along the sides. 
CliUPEA SAGAS. 
Clupea sagas, Jenyns, Beagle Fishes, p. 134. 
Gunther, Catal., vol. vii., p 443. 
Alausa melanosticta, Cuv. ^ Val., sx. p. 444. 
Professor M‘Coy has published the following interesting 
account of this fish “Intercolonial Exhibition,” 1866-07 : “ Of the 
family OlupeidcB, or herrings, there is only one of much impor- 
tance in our seas. A specimen of this was first brought to me 
in August, 1864, from a small shoal then seen for the first time 
in Hobson’s Bay, and quite unknown to the fishermen. It was 
supposed by the sender to be the Yarra Herring, or Grayling, 
gone out to sea ; but on examination I found it was the Clupea 
Melanosticta of Temmink, or the species of Bilchard, so abundant 
on the shores of Japan. In the same month, in the succeeding 
year, they appeared in great abundance in the Bay, and were 
caught by thousands for the market. After remaining for a few 
weeks they disappeared until the same time in 1866, when they 
arrived in such countless thousands, that carts were filled with 
them by simply dipping them out of the sea with large baskets. 
Hundreds of tons of them were sent up the country to the inland 
markets, and through the city, for several weeks, they were sold 
for a few pence the bucketful while the captains of the ships 
entering the Bay reported having passed through closely packed 
shoals of them for miles. They may be now probably expected 
every year as a very important addition to the food fishes of the 
country. I imagine some alteration in the bed of the sea, from 
the earthquake disturbances north of Australia, about that time, 
