136 ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



abundant : they seem to be more common in the Gulf of Lyons. Locally 

 abundant off the south coast of Britain, they extend to Madeira, from whence 

 Lowe sent specimens to Yarrell. 



The first capture recorded in the British Isles was in Mount's Bay, October, 

 1825 : then solitary examples at Bridgewater in 1833 : in 1836 one was 

 taken on the south coast of Devonshire, and one at Teignmouth about the same 

 time : at Lossiemouth in 1839, when the sj)ecimen, 7 inches long, was sent to the 

 Elgin Museum. On March 6th, 1842, another was found alive on the beach at 

 Brighton, and considered such a rare acquisition that it was sent for Her Majesty's 

 acceptance, when H.R.H. the Prince Consort was the first who recognized and 

 correctly identified the fish as the Capros aper. 



One was taken at Falmouth in 1841, while on August 12th, 1843, the shore on 

 the western side of Plymouth was strewn with numbers captured by trawlers, 

 who threw them overboard when turning out their nets. A strong easterly 

 wind is said to have been blowing, and which was surmised to have driven 

 them inshore. Mr. Gatcombe, in the Zoologist, p. 429, observed: "I should 

 say there were more than a thousand of them, and almost all of the most 

 beautiful colours, some quite crimson, others more scarlet or pink, but all more 

 or less beautifully banded or striped. I found, however, that these bands soon 

 faded or disappeared altogether on being exposed to the light and air." The 

 fishermen stated that within a few years these fish have swarmed to such an 

 extent as to have become a perfect pest, and that in many instances the trawlers 

 have actually been obliged to change their fishing ground in order to be out 

 of their way. Such immense numbers often got into the trawl that holes had 

 to be cut in the net to allow the fish to escape, as it was found almost 

 impossible to lift such a great bulk on board without carrying away their gear. 



In July, 1844, about two hundred were taken in a trawl (the first that had 

 been tried) off the Runnel Stone, and others continued to be captured for three 

 months in the neighbourhood and along the coast near Land's End, a tract 

 not much visited by the Mount's Bay fishing boats (Holme, Zool. p. 769). In 

 1845 more were taken in the same locality : one at Falmouth in June, 1846 : 

 another at Bridgewater in May, 1850, which proved to be full of spawn, and 

 in 1852 one in the Moray Firth (Gordon, Zool. p. 3459), and many other 

 solitary instances were subsequently recorded. 1866 one from Devonshire. In 

 March, 1868, an immature example was washed ashore in White Sands Bay, 

 Land's End, having a well-defined black spot at the upper part of the base of 

 the caudal fin, and another was captured the same month (Cornish, Zool. p. 1222). 

 Since then I find the following instances recorded in the Zoologist. One 

 from the Scilly Isles in 1870, where the fishermen declared they had not 

 previously seen it : in June, 1873, one was taken at Hastings, 5 inches long : 

 one from Torcross in 1875, and another in September from Poole : a shoal of 

 fifteen taken on the south-west coast of Cornwall, and exhibited in the Crystal 

 Palace Aquarium. July 4th, 1877, one in the Isle of Wight. During May, 

 1879, numbers were cast ashore in a sickly state at Bournemouth : others 

 were taken at Rye and Hastings, while four were washed ashore on the 

 Dorsetshire coast on the sand banks at Poole during the night of March 30th, 

 some of them contained spawn. April the same year two were recorded from 

 Exmouth : two from Torquay in February : in May one was picked up on the 

 beach at Eastbourne ; and another brought alive into Grimsby from the mouth 

 of the Humber. 



Mr. Dunn, of Mevagissey, in his very interesting remarks upon the fishes 

 of that locality, written in October, 1878, observed : " Common here from the 

 Start to the Lizard : these past five years they seem to be on the increase, 

 thousands are yearly caught by Plymouth trawlers off Deadman Headland, and 

 thousands more are brought to land by our drift fishermen. In June and 

 July last year I had over 150 alive in my tanks at one time." 



In 1879 Mr. Gunn recorded one picked up alive, May 16th, near Eastbourne, 

 and Mr. Carrington reported the capture of other examples from various parts of 

 the south and south-east coast of England during the month of June. The localities 



