2iS Identity of the Deal Fish of Orkney 



eat it. The Icelandic traveller, however, has suffered him- 

 self, somewhat incautiously, and in opposition to satisfactory 

 proof, to consider his fish as identical with the Leptilrus of 

 Artedi. P^ven were there no other distinguishing characters, 

 the absence of the caudal fin in the latter fish might of itself 

 have been deemed sufficient to justify its separation from the 

 Vaagmaer. 



Baron Cuvier, in the first edition of his Regne Atii7nal, 

 published in 181 7, vol. ii. p. 246. adopted the genus Gymno- 

 gaster, which Brunich had appropriated for the reception of 

 the Vaagmaer. This genus depended on the following cha- 

 racters of the fish : — the dorsal fin single, and extending the 

 whole length of the back ; a distinct caudal fin ; small pec- 

 toral fins; and without anal or ventral fins. In a note, how- 

 ever, he seems to intimate his suspicion that the absence of the 

 ventrals may have been occasioned by accident, in the mutilated 

 specimens examined by the two northern observers. In the 

 second edition of the Regne Animal, published in 1829, vol. ii. 

 f). 219., the learned author, apparently under the influence of 

 his former suspicions, has restored ventral fins to the Vaag- 

 maer, inserted it in the genus Gymnetrus, and thus suppressed 

 the genus Gymnogaster of Brunich. The propriety of this 

 change appears to me to be more than doubtful. The evi- 

 dence of Olafsen, Brunich, and Dr. Duguid being of a 

 positive kind, seems sufficient to justify the belief that the fish 

 «nder consideration had no ventral fins, nor is there even a 

 shadow of proof that it exhibited any remarkable elongation 

 of the anterior rays of the dorsal fin, or that the caudal fin 

 was elevated vertically on the tail. Yet the three characters 

 now referred to are those assigned by Cuvier to his genus 

 Oymnetrus. In the belief that in this instance he has been 

 misled, doubtless by an anxiety to avoid the multiplication 

 of useless synonymes, I feel disposed to restore the genus 

 Gymnogaster of Brunich, and to consider the evidence here 

 produced as sufficient to justify the insertion of the Vaagmaer 

 of Iceland among British animals. 



The specimen which Dr. Duguid had the kindness to trans- 

 mit to me was in a dried state, and so mutilated in head and 

 tail as to prevent me gleaning any additional information. It 

 had apparently been in the sea for some time after death, as 

 several examples of the Lobatula vulgaris adhered to the 

 opercular bones, and even to the disjoined rays of the dorsal 

 fin. The specimen was about 22 in. in length. From the 

 back bone to the base of the dorsal fin 2^ in. ; length of the 

 iilaments of the dorsal fin nearly 2 in. Vertebrae towards the 

 head scarcely two tenths of an inch in length, but increasing 



