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Show (•72 DR. A. G U N T H E R ON N E W FISHES [NOV. 21, truncated behind • it extends to or slightly beyond the mandibulary joint. Gill-rakers closely set, the longest nearly as long as the eye; there are thirteen in the upper part of the branchial arch, and from twenty-two to twenty-four in the lower. Origin of the dorsal fin nearer to the end of the snout than to the root of the caudal. The anal fin commences at a short distance behind the last dorsal ray. Abdomen trenchant, with the spiny scutes scarcely extending to the root of the pectoral fins. Pectoral fins not quite reaching the ventrals. Back bluish green, sides silvery. Red Sea, Zanzibar, Mysol, Manado (Meyer). CLUPEA SPRATTUS. The British Museum has recently received four Clupeoids from Tasmania, through the kindness of Mr. Morton Allport. They were accompanied with the following notes from ' Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania' for May 1867 :- "A note from Mr. Calder, containing the following extract from a letter received by him from Bruni Island was read :-' Last week a curious circumstance took place in Simmon's Cove. An immense shoal of small fish of the Sprat kind(?) was driven into the Cove by larger kinds, such as the Barracouta, Kingfish, and others, in such numbers that they absolutely suffocated each other, and drifted ashore in such quantities that you will hardly believe m e when I tell you there are at least one hundred tons there, and fully two hundred more at the bottom of the water, all dead. They are now quite putrid, and the smell can be perceived fully a mile and a half off. The top of the water is covered with a quantity of oil which has exuded from the dead fish. W e are longing for a high tide to carry them away. Many carts and boats have been at work, taking them for manure, yet they appear no less in quantity. I have been calculating that, supposing four of these fish to weigh one ounce, the number of the dead will amount to forty-three millions and eight thousand.' " Mr. M . Allport observed that a similar migration of these fish to our shores had taken place in 1844, and numbers of them passed far up the Derwent. They represented the Pilchard of the Northern Hemisphere, and were, no doubt, identical with those which had lately visited Port Phillip. Although they were the representatives of the Pilchard, it was possible some slight traces of difference existed between them, as was generally the case with all representatives of animals in the two hemispheres." The four Clupeoids sent belong to two distinct species. The one is the variety of the common European Anchovy which I have described as Engraulis encrasicholus, var. antipodum. The second is the common European Sprat, Clupea sprattus. At first I thought the Tasmanian fishes might be distinguished from the European form by the apparent absence of palatine teeth ; but during a more careful examination I found these teeth as well developed as in Cl. sprattus, so that I cannot hesitate to refer them to tbe same species. A Pilchard, or a species representing the Pilchard, was not among |