EDIBLE FISHES OF QUEENSLAND, PAUL II.—OGILBY. 
73 
species is so variable, not only in its coloration, but also in its comparative 
measurements and the number of spines and rays in the dorsal fin, that we 
consider the differences between the typical form and the two species described 
by McCoy, great as they may appear individually, to be only such as might be 
expected to occur in a fresh-water species of wide range, and which exists under 
such varying conditions of life and diversities of climate. ’ ’ These differences 
are accentuated by the discovery of the Queensland form, but the main issue is in 
no ways affected thereby. Years ago Johnston came to the same conclusions as 
are here set out from a “ close study of the variability of the Tasmanian G. 
marmoratus He concludes his remarks with the following pertinent sentence, 
with which I cordially agree — “It is very hazardous in this genus to create a 
new species based upon the examination of only tw 7 o or three individuals. 97 So 
far as fresh-water fishes at least are concerned he might well have omitted “in 
this genus. In reference to this subject Mr. David G. Stead, Superintendent of 
Fishery Investigation, New South Wales, kindly forwards the following note: — 
I find a very great amount of variation in both form and color in this species. 
As in a number of our other fluviatile fishes, the form is generally more elongate 
in those examples taken from the more rapid streams, than in those from sluggish 
ones; and particularly is the difference to be noted between the Gadopsis of a still 
lagoon and that of a neighboring stream — the former being comparatively stout 
and short. The difference is so marked at times, that the specialist might well 
be pardoned for considering such fishes as specifically distinct, if they were just 
placed upon his table without any information as to the places whence they came. 
In color the variation usually ranges from a light brown to a dark greenish 
brown — with the usual marblings. (The latter may be of a large, or yet quite a 
small, pattern.) Where the fish is taken from very dark muddy bottoms or very 
turbid streams it is usually of a dirty blackish color with but little trace of the 
marmorations. ” 
Historical : Described originally by Richardson from an undetermined 
river in Southern Australia, Gunther next enlarged its range by the inclusion of 
Tasmania, while Steindaehner, four years later, by obtaining examples from the 
Murray River, definitely established an Australian locality for the species. The 
first writer in Australia to publish an account of this fish was Castelnau, who 
in 1872 recorded it as being “found in almost all the streams of South-Eastern 
Australia. Under the names gibbosus and gracilis McCoy, some years later, 
strove to detach from the parent species two Victorian forms, the latter a slender 
and generally handsome fish from the Yarra, the former stouter, shorter, and 
duller in color from the Bun yip River, Gippsland. Recent writers, however, 
consider that the characters on which these species are based are of too trivial 
a nature to admit of their specific separation. Macleay (1881) adds nothing to 
our knowledge of the species, but Johnston in the succeeding year makes some 
interesting remarks on the subject of its distribution in Tasmania, which are 
