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MEMOIRS OF TEE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 
Reproduction : — The breeding habits of this curious fish have not been 
studied with the attention which they deserve ; nevertheless, our present knowledge 
is greatly in advance of that when Johnston, who first alludes to the subject, 
wrote that, though he and others had opened hundreds of specimens, he was 
unable to distinguish the male from the female, and so suggests that the fishes 
are bisexual. The earliest precise information, which we possess, is contained in 
the following short paragraph, taken from my work above mentioned : — 
'“Specimens from the Bell River, Wellington, were shedding their spawn when 
obtained during the month of October. The ripe ova are few in number, of large 
size, and orange colored.” Up to now that was the extent of our published 
information on this most important subject, but Messrs. Stead and Colclough 
both contribute useful additions to our knowledge. The former states (in lit.) : — 
“Spawning takes place usually about October and November, though occasional 
females may be taken with ripe eggs throughout the whole of the warmer weather. 
The eggs are demersal and adhesive. The ripe ova vary in colour from a light 
grey to a golden tint, but are usually of a pale straw-color.” The latter writes 
me: — “In respect of its spawning; towards the end of the winter a peculiar 
grass appears in the bed of the stream, which grass is much frequented by the 
fish at this time when it is full of spawn. I believe that the roe is deposited for 
protection among this weed, but whether the ova adhere, either singly or in 
masses, to the grass, or to stones, or whether the fish makes a nest of some sort 
among the grasses, I have so far failed to satisfy myself. I am, however, fully 
satisfied that the worst enemy, against which both the ova and fry have to 
contend, is the fresh- water shrimp; * which at this season feeds largely upon them.” 
With the additional information imparted to us above by Stead, we may safely 
conclude that the ova adhere to the stems of the grass referred to by Mr. 
Colclough. 
Habits : — As with the Trout the most fruitful cause of variation in the 
Slippery is its catholicity of habitat, for it is not only a denizen of still lagunes 
and sluggish streams, but can also hold its own in the more rapid flowing creeks 
and rivulets, though it is in the former that they attain their greatest develop- 
ment. Regarding their mode of life the elder Australian authors have given us 
but scanty information. The Report of the Royal Commission on the Fisheries 
of New South Wales (1880, p. 89) tells us that “it is a mud-fish, and is seldom 
caught except by the emptying or drying-up of a waterhole.” This statement, 
which is but partially true, has unfortunately been copied over and over again, 
and gives a very restricted view of the habits of the fish and its adaptability to 
incongruous conditions and varying environment. Johnston remarks that it is 
“usually taken in considerable numbers by rod and line all the year round, the 
hook baited often with the large white grub” of a species of moth obtained from 
PalEemon sp. 
