44 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



in July off the Isle of Wight, and in August off Dover. 

 For this reason, then, since the neighbourhood of the Straits 

 of Dover is remote from the western or Atlantic habitat 

 of the fish, I have included this region, together with the 

 east coast of England and with Scotland, in our table 

 (on p. 43) of the seasonal distribution of the fish. 1 



Turning now to the Scatidinavian portion of our table, 

 we see that the Sun-fish occurs on the west coast of Norway, 

 S. of Aalesund (and also in the Christianiafjord),; from 

 August to December ; that is to say, at much the same 

 season as on the eastern coasts of Scotland and England. 

 Northwards to Trondhjem, the three recorded instances lie 

 between September and November which comes to very 

 much the same thing. The two farthest north of all are 

 from Meloe (6y N.), also in " autumn " ; and from the 

 Altenfjord (70 N.), not far from Tromso, in January 1882. 

 In Danish waters, from the southern part of the Skagerack 

 to the Belts, the whole of the seventeen recorded captures 

 lie between October and December ; and the few records 

 from the western or North Sea coast of Jutland are in 

 November and December. In Iceland also two cases 

 occurred in September and November, and a third, less 

 accurately recorded, in "winter time." 



All these facts hang easily and closely together, when 

 we remember the Orthagoriscus is an oceanic fish, with an 

 extensive distribution over the warmer parts of all the 

 oceans, including the Mediterranean Sea and the temperate 

 Atlantic to the westward of our islands. From this latter 

 region, then, it approaches our coasts and enters our narrow 

 seas. It is found off Cornwall by about May or June, and 

 has been shown to take about three months on its passage 

 up the Channel to Dover. We have found it off the 

 Hebrides and at Orkney in September; on the east coasts 

 of England and Scotland October is its month of maximum. 



1 Of our eight Aberdeen records, six occurred in 191 r, another 

 indication that the fish is apt to come to us in unusual abundance in 

 particular years. There were also signs of abundance, but not so 

 well marked, in the years 1858, 1870, 1883, and 1890. 



2 Save for one exceptional occurrence in March. 



