Of New Guinea fishes
p. 94 · Read in the full issue
and fowl
“The Fishes of New Guinea ” (published by the Department of Agriculture. Stock and Fisheries, Port Moresby), is described as the first complete handbook on the fishes to be found in New Guinea and adjacent waters. And some handbook it is, too!
With 78 half-tone plates, six plates in full colour and 23 line drawings, describing 1,100 species, the book runs to more than 700 pages. Its selling price, $14.50, is good value.
A brief technical diagnosis is given for every species of New Guinean fish. Basic body proportions, fin counts, scale counts, the number of teeth and colouration are recorded in detail.
The book is aimed both at the marine specialist and the enthusiastic amateur fisherman (the kind who must know the name of every monster he pulls from the deep).
For the non-specialist there is a “how-to-use-this-book” section which describes how to identify a fish by using the technically-orientated text.
The Fishes of New Guinea is a handsome book. It would look good
on the shelves of any keen territorian who has a yen for the things in the sea.
The author, lan S. R. Munro, is principal research officer with the Division of Fisheries and Ocean ography, CSIRO, Cronulla, NSW.
Mr. Munro’s first step in preparing the book was to establish a check-list of fish in the New Guinea region. This was published in the New Guinea Agricultural Journal in 1956. In 1964 he added a further paper, giving de tails of new species of fish found in the region.
The Fishes of New Guinea will no doubt become a standard textbook on the marine life of the area and also a valuable reference for fish found off the northern and north-east Australian coast. It is being dis tributed by the Agriculture Depart
ment, Port Moresby, and also through the Sydney office of the Department of External Territories.
ANOTHER New Guinea technical work available is Annotated List of Birds of the Adelbert Mountains, New Guinea. It sells for SUS2.50, and is published by the American Museum of National History, New York.
Prepared by the late E. Thomas Gilliard and Mary Lecroy, the bulletin is the result of a journey made by Gilliard and his wife to the southern, and highest, peak of the Adelberts in 1959.
During that trek 385 specimens of birds were obtained, of some 130 species. The species are listed and described.
The bulletin runs to 81 pages and
contains six handsome plates.-
SR.