SHORT SUN-FISH. 463 



THE SUN-FISH, as this species has been called from the 

 twofold circumstance of its almost circular form and shining 

 surface, though occurring but occasionally, may be said to 

 have been taken from John o 1 Groat's to the Land's End. 



Sir Andrew Balfour and Sir Robert Sibbakl have noticed 

 this species in Scotland, and Dr. Ncill mentions three ex- 

 amples that were taken in the Frith of Forth. I am in- 

 debted to Edward Jesse, Esq. for a memorandum of one 

 caught on the coast of Northumberland in October 1834. 

 Dawson Turner, Esq. and Mr. Pagct have known it to be 

 taken at Yarmouth. I have seen one that was brought to 

 the London market. Colonel Montagu, in his MS. notes, 

 mentions one that was caught at Salcombe in July 1799 : 

 this specimen was of large size, and weighed three hundred 

 pounds. In the fifth volume of Mr. London's Magazine of 

 Natural History, page 315, there is a record of one that was 

 taken at Plymouth ; and Dr. Borlase, Willughby, and Mr. 

 Couch have seen and described examples that were taken on 

 the Cornish coast. Still farther to the westward and north- 

 ward, the Sun-fish has been taken in the Bristol Channel, 

 and one was caught during last summer at Tenby. On the 

 Irish coast, it has been taken at Londonderry ; and I am 

 greatly indebted to the kindness of Dr. Arthur Jacob, Pro- 

 fessor of Anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons in Dub- 

 lin, for his remarks on a specimen taken in the month of 

 August 1826, between the south-west coast of England and 

 Dublin Bay. This paper was published in the Dublin 

 Philosophical Journal for November 1826, and is the best 

 account of this fish that I am acquainted with. 



Since the publication of the previous edition of this work 

 several other examples of this species have been taken on 

 various parts of the coasts of the British islands. One at 

 Shetland ; another in the Forth, some of the anatomical pecu- 

 liarities of which have been described by Mr. Goodsir, in the 



