DISCOBOLI. 183 



North Germany, to Great Britain and Ireland, also the Channel Isles and Atlantic 

 coasts of France, having been recorded from Boulogne, Havre, and Roscoff , but 

 becoming rare in the Gulf of Gascogne. In the New World it extends from 

 Greenland and the Polar regions to New York and Cape Hatteras. 



Very frequent, as noticed by Low, in the Orkneys and Shetlands (Baikie), 

 especially on the sand banks, where half a dozen are drawn ashore at once but 

 never of any great bulk. Also along the Scottish coasts : Thompson mentions its 

 existence in Ayrshire : Edward at Banff : Sim at Aberdeen : it is found at 

 Montrose and St. Andrew's, at which latter place Mcintosh observes that it is 

 common on the west sands after storms and occasionally in the stomach of the 

 cod, while the young abound in rock pools in autumn. It has likewise been 

 recorded at various places around the English and Welsh coasts, as Berwickshire, 

 also Yarmouth by Paget in 1819, one from which same locality, taken in January, 

 1848, and weighing 13|lb., is now in the Norwich Museum; while at Lynn a fine 

 male example was captured March 30th, 1853, perhaps carried up the river by a 

 flowing tide. It had probably entered the bay after small herrings and smelts, 

 which were being captured by the fishermen. It has frequently been taken and 

 it is not rare along the south coast, but becomes less numerous in Cornwall, where, 

 however, it is common in particular localities : Mr. Cornish (Zool. 1874, p. 4037) 

 finds the female is not uncommon at Penzance, but the male to be rare. 



In Ireland it is captured around the coast, but Templeton observes that it is 

 not very common, and Thompson subsequently that on the north-east they are 

 taken, seldom more than one or two at a time, during the breeding season, in nets 

 set for various fishes, as it generally enters arms of the sea in spring to deposit 

 its ova. 



This fish attains to a considerable size, the female being usually larger than the 

 male: one of the former was captured in Jersey in 1879 which weighed 15f lb. 

 Storer mentions an American example which weighed 17 lb. Thompson records 

 an Irish specimen which measured 23| inches in length, and it is rare for the 

 lump-sucker to exceed 2 feet. The example, figured life size, was obtained off 

 the coast of Sussex. 



