REVIEW OF THE SERRANIDJE. 
343 
(From the Aunals and Magazine of Ifatural History for September, 1887.] 
NOTE ON THE HAPUKU OF NEW ZEALAND (POLYPKION PROGNATHUS). 
The Hapukii of New Zealand, one of the most highly esteemed food-lishesof the southern hemisphere, 
and attaining to a weight of 100 pouad.s, has been known to naturalists since Cook’s visits to that 
country, as has been shown by Mr. Hutton (Trans. N. Z. Instit. v. p. 259). It was figured by Forster 
as well as by Parkinson, the former naming it Perea prognathus, a very appropriate term, to which I 
give preference before all others, although Schneider (Bl. Schu. p. 301) arbitrarily changed it into the 
le.ss expressive Epinephelus oxygeneios. Forster’s original descrii)tion is published in “ Descript. Animal, 
ed. Lichtenstein,” p. 309, and referred to by Cuvier (Cuv. & Val. Hist. Nat. Poiss. iii. p. 29), who, 
with his perfect knowledge of fishes, recognized its relation to Polyprion, not doubting that it was the 
same species as the Atlantic P. cernium. 
The figure left by Parkinson bears the name Sciwna gadoides, probably in Broussonet’s hand- 
writing; but this name seems to have remained always a MS. name. 
The second period of the history of this fish begins with Owen, who, in the “ Osteological Catalogue 
of the College of Surgeons,” i. p. 51, described the skeleton of a New Zealand Percoid under the name 
of Centropristis gigas. In the “ Catalogue of Fishes,” i. p. 251, 1 stated the reasons which prevented 
me from adopting Professor Owen’s view as to the generic affinity of this fish, which I thought, in the 
absence of specimens preserved entire, would prove to be rather with the Murray cod, Oligorus; and 
thus the fish appeared in nearly all subsequent publications as Oligorus gigas. Casteluau, however, 
(“Notes on the Edible Fishes of Victoria,” 1873, p. 8, and Proc. Zool. Soc. Viet. ii. 1873, p. 151), pro- 
posed to form a new genus for it, Hectoria, “on account of its armed tongue, double-pointed operculum, 
etc.” 
In more recent years the same fish has been found far from the place of its first discovery, viz., off 
the island of Juan Fernandez, and described by Steindachuer as Polypriou it/ieri (Sitziiugsb. Wien. 
Acad. Ixxi. p. 443); also the Challenger obtained it off the same island (Chall. Shore Fish. p. 24). 
Finally, the British Museum obtained from the Fisheries and Indo-Colonial Exhibitions specimens 
(in spirit as well as mounted) from New Ze.aland and Juan Fernandez * ; and a direct comparison of 
these specimens can leave no doubt that all belong to the same species, which is antipodal to the only 
other species known. Polyprion cerniiim. 
Lowe (Fish. Madeira, p. 185) has shown that P. cernium is a deep-sea fish, swimming near the surface 
when young, but living habitually at a depth of 300 and more fathoms when adult. The wide range 
of this genus is therefore not surprising ; in fact we may well expect that P, cernium will be met with 
far beyond the limits of the northeastern Atlantic. 
Genus III.— STEREOLEPIS. 
Stereolepis Ayres Proc. Cal. Ac. Nat. Sci., 1859, 28. {gigas). 
Type. — Stereolepis gigas Ayres. 
Etymology. — Irspsorj firm ; Xent^, scale. 
This genus contains a single species, one of the gigantic Serranoids known as 
“jew-hshes,” rivaling in size Polyprion cernium, Epinephelus nigritus, and Promicrops 
guttatus. 
The Australian genus OUgoriis Giinther is closely allied to Stereolepis, differing 
apparently in the greater number of soft rays in the dorsal and anal fins (D. XII, 14 
to 16 : A. Ill, 12). 
ANALYSIS OF SPECIES OF STEREOLEPIS. 
a. Body oblong, somewhat elevated, little compressed ; head robust, the profile steeply elevated, the fore- 
head broad and flattish ; edges of preopercle and interopercle serrate, becoming nearly entire 
with age ; crown, cheeks, and opercles scaly ; snout, preorbital, and jaws naked ; scales small, 
*Those exhibited by the Chilian Government, and presented by them to the British Museum, bore 
the MS. name “ Perea fernandeziana.” 
