VENDACE. 149 



The circumstance that this fish is never caught by anglers 

 made a knowledge of its food a matter of interest in several 

 points of view. Dr. Knox ascertained that this consists 

 principally of very minute entomostracous animals, not exceed- 

 ing seven-twelfths of a line in size. I have been favoured 

 with specimens of the Vendace by Sir William Jardine and 

 T. S. Bushnan, Esq. which have afforded me several oppor- 

 tunities of examining the contents of the stomach and intes- 

 tines. The contained mass, which is frequently in considera- 

 ble quantity, has a brownish yellow colour, appearing slightly 

 granulated to the unassisted eye. A very small portion being 

 placed on a slip of glass, and agitated gently in conjunction 

 with a drop of water, which separates the particles, on placing 

 the slip of glass under a good microscope, two species in 

 various states of perfection are almost constantly found. The 

 vignette at the end of the description of this fish represents 

 these two forms. The first and second figure on the left hand 

 are a back and side view of a species of the genus Lynceus of 

 Mliller and others ; the third and fourth figures are a back 

 and side view of a species of Cyclops of Miiller. On one 

 occasion, I found a very small coleopterous insect, the tough 

 skin of a red worm not much thicker than fine thread, and 

 what appeared to be a portion of the wing of a dipterous 

 insect. 



Dr. Knox found that the females of the Vendace were 

 more numerous as well as larger than the males, frequently 

 exceeding eight inches in length; the males not measuring 

 more than seven inches, which was the length of the specimen 

 here described. They are seldom seen of larger size. 



The length of the head compared to that of the body only 

 was as two to seven ; the depth of the body at the com- 

 mencement of the dorsal fin not quite equal to one-fourth of 

 the length of the body without the caudal rays : the body 

 elegantly shaped ; the convexity of the dorsal and abdominal 



