2 3*5J 
RECORDS OF IV. A. MUSEUM. 
ON A SPECIMEN OF REGALECUS GLESNE. ASCI AN.. 
OBTAINED IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
-- BY — 
W. B. ALEXANDER, M.A. 
Plate XXXVIII. 
On January 8th, 1913, the Museum obtained through Captain 
A. Abjornssen, Inspector of Fisheries, a fine specimen of an Oar- 
fish. It had been found on the shore of Rottnest Island a few days 
previously in a dying condition by a boy named Backhouse. As 
this curious fish is so rarely met with, as some doubt exists as to 
whether there is only one cosmopolitan species of Oar-fish, or 
whether there are a number of closely allied forms, and as this is 
the first authenticated record for the west coast of Australia, it 
seems worth while to give a short description of the present 
example. 
Before doing so it will be well to notice briefly the records of 
previous occurrences of Regalecus in Australasian waters. The first 
example seems to have been obtained at Nelson, N.Z., in i860, and 
since then some 15 other examples have been recorded from New 
Zealand. 01 these, three are of special interest since they were 
made types of new species. 
One obtained at New Brighton near Christchurch in 1876 was 
described by von Haast as R. pacificus (Trans. N.Z. Inst. X., 
p. 246) whilst one obtained at Moeraki in Otago Harbour was 
described by Parker as R argentms (Trans. N.Z. Inst., XVI, 
p. 284). Another, also obtained in Otago Harbour was made the 
type of R. pavkeri by Benham (Trans. N.Z. Inst., XXXVI, p. 198). 
Other New Zealand specimens have been referred to R. gladius and 
R. gvillii. 
1 can only find references to four previous occurrences of 
Regalecus in Australia, all from the East or South-east. The first 
obtained in Bass Strait in 1878 was described and figured by 
McCoy (Prodr, Zool. Viet., vol. II., p. 169) under the name of R. 
banksi. The second, found on the beach in the Tweed River 
District of Queensland, was made the type of a new species, R. 
masterii , by de Vis (Proc. Roy. Soc. Q’land, 1892, p. 109). The 
