204 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



SCORPCENA DACTYLOPTERA, DELAROCHE, IN 

 SCOTTISH WATERS. 



By GEORGE SIM, A.L.S. 



THIS fish has been long known to the writer under the name 

 of Scbastes norwegicus. So abundant is it some twelve miles off 

 Troup Head, that frequently from one to four hundredweight 

 have been brought in by one vessel ; while smaller quantities 

 are of much more frequent occurrence. This fish is caught 

 in comparatively deep water, varying from 40 to I 10 fathoms. 

 It is an excellent article of food, and as it attains to a length 

 of i 8 to 20 inches, it is of some economic importance. 



As an inhabitant of the British North Sea Area, how- 

 ever, Scorp&na dactyloptera was first placed on record by 

 Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, of the Science and Art Museum, 

 Edinburgh, who received a young specimen from the York- 

 shire coast. His remarks thereupon were embodied in a 

 paper on this species generally, read before the Royal 

 Physical Society of Edinburgh during the present year. 



As already stated, Scorpcena dactyloptera has been known 

 to the writer, on the east coast of Scotland, under the name 

 of Sebastes norwegicus ; and it might still have been looked 

 upon by him as that species, but for the recent occurrence 

 of another closely allied form, known as Sebastes viviparus, 

 Kroyer. When Sebastes viviparus first came under his 

 notice, the writer compared it with what he believed to be 

 Scbastes norwegicus, and found so many marked differences 

 that he reported his observations in the present volume of 

 the " Annals of Scottish Natural History," p. 47, with a view 

 to show that the two forms were specifically distinct : a point 

 that is still doubted by some. 



Subsequently he sent specimens of both forms to Dr. 

 Giinther of the British Museum, and that gentleman pro- 

 nounced the Sebastes norivegicns of the writer to be Scorpcena 

 dactyloptera ; and since then this view has been supported 

 by Dr. Traquair, and Mr. Eagle Clarke of the Edinburgh 

 Museum. And to all three gentlemen the writer tenders 

 his thanks. 



