OCR Text |
Show 1882.] MR. F. DAY ON ANGUILLA KIENERI. 537 Collett has remarked, to determine the species of this genus is times difficult, owing to the unsatisfactory condition of the older type specimens, as well as the great individual variations in proportions, colour, and amount of scaling that occur among examples of the same species, and which may sometimes be due to sexual conditions. It admits of the clearest proof that the young and adult individuals of the same species exhibit marked dissimilarity. The example is 3| inches in length ; its head is one seventh of the total length, and the"greatest height of the body one fourteenth of the total length; the height of the head is two fifths of its length, and but little less than its width. Eyes comparatively large, being about one fourth of the length of the head, one diameter from the end of the snout, and less than one diameter apart. Teeth in the Lycodes kieneri (Giinther), §. jaws, vomer, and palate. Scales existing from the head and back of the pectoral fin backwards over the body. It seems as if only one lateral line were present. The fins are too much stiffened for it to be possible to count the fin-rays ; the pectoral turned forwards reaches the middle of the eye; the ventrals, consisting of one or two rays each, are rather more than half as long as the eye. No open glands are visible on the cheeks and gill-covers ; but three are placed along the edge of the upper jaw, and some along the lower jaw. M y principal reasons for directing attention to this specimen are, first, to point out that the Mediterranean Anguilla kieneri has not yet been obtained from our coasts, and consequently is not entitled to any place in the British Fauna; secondly, to show that the Arctic genus Lycodes is represented by this wrongly determined specimen. But to what species the fish belongs I do not consider sufficient data are at hand on which to form a definite opinion. 36* |