30 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
VoL. 2 
be a very local species." and not found “ in the other very 
similar and close adjacent streams " of the Cobourg Peninsula. 
Three other specimens from the same locality were subse- 
quently presented to the British Museum by Gould. From 
that time, seventy years ago, no mention of the hsh has been 
made, and no further examples obtained until the specimen 
exhibited was sent to the Queensland Museum from the 
Norman River by Dr. Chas. Taylor, of Normanton. This, 
therefore, is practically a rediscovery. The specimen is also 
interesting in showing remarkably well the method by which 
the male cheilodipterid hatches out its young, the eyed ova 
filling the mouth and throat to their utmost capacity in this 
specimen. 
HyperlopJws copii, Ogilby. 
The Silver Sprat [Hyperlophus copii, Ogilby) visits the 
coasts of Southern Queensland and New South Wales in 
countless shoals of enormous magnitude every year during 
the winter months, and is destined — when our business 
men wake up — to become the very finest sardine of commerce. 
It is an especially interesting species, because it is one of the 
very few survivors of an old-time race of clupeids, which are 
distinguished by having an additional series of keeled plates 
in front of the dorsal fin similar to the ventral series ])resent 
in most recent clupeids. These ancient herrings flourished 
during the chalk age, and are especially plentiful in the 
Green River Shales of W}'oming, whence Cope described 
many species. They also occur in the Upper Cretaceous 
of Bahia, Mt. Lebanon, Istria, and Dalmatia, and in the 
‘'Osborne Beds" of the Isle of Wight, so that apparently 
they were as widely distributed in Tertiar)^ times as are the 
herrings and sprats of the present day. 
FERN COLLECTING. 
By Fnuih Biirtt, President, — Delivered February Pith, 1015. 
Fern collecting is the title of this short ]xiper. A simple 
subject, but perhaps appropriate for a Field Naturalists' 
Club, which aims to number amongst its members, those 
who make no ]>retensions to being “ scientific," but are just 
as deeply imbued with a love of nature and all her handiwork 
as those who have devoted their lives to science. And just 
here I should like to say this about our Club. We have 
just completed another successful year, and the Club 
may truly claim to be a very live one ; and as long as it con- 
tinues its existence on the present or similar lines, it will 
