238 DESCRIPTION OF A SPECIMEN 



gills many of Ihe Distoma contortum. Attached to the gills, 

 were also a few specimens of a very remarkable crustaceous 

 parasite, which have been preserved by Mr. Dixon, and will, 

 probably, prove to be new to the Fauna of this country. 



This short account of the internal anatomy of this rare 

 fish, may, perhaps, appear to be very superficial : my apology 

 must be that the dissection was conducted under very 

 unfavourable circumstances ; it was made in the open air, 

 and upon the ground in the commissioners' yard at Kings- 

 town, in a position where we were liable to continual inter- 

 ruptions. Moreover, my time being limited, the examina- 

 tion was necessarily more hurried than I could have wished ; 

 and I had no means of preserving any of the parts for a 

 more extended and careful examination. 



The figures given in different works intended to represent 

 this species, are, many of them, very unlike the present spe- 

 cimen. In Bloch's figure, which appears to have been copied 

 into Shaw's work on Zoology ; in Donovan's and in Pennant's 

 figures, and in that given in the best and most recent work 

 upon British fishes, by YaiTell, the caudal portion of the ani- 

 mal is represented to have all the appearance of a fin, the 

 rays being distinct. 



The figure which Dr. Jacob has given in the last number 

 of the * Dublin Philosophical Journal,' of a specimen which 

 he dissected, represents this part pretty accurately, but in 

 other particulars it differs materially from the specimen before 

 me. In his figure, the shape of the pectoral fin is materially 

 different ; the number of fin-rays was also not the same, and 

 the animal was shorter in proportion to its depth. No writer 

 appears to have noticed the bony deposits upon the probos- 

 cis and below the inferior maxilla^ nor those between the 

 lobes of the caudal portion of the animal. 



In the * Historia Piscium Francisci Willughbei,' published 

 at Oxford in 1686, is contained a description of the Ortha- 

 goriscus mola, which is accurate in many particulars ; the 

 figure is also very good for the time. The specimen from 

 which he took his description was upwards of 2 feet in 

 length. " The body short and deep, posteriorly provided with 

 a circular pinna, or tail ; the skin not scaly, but hard, thick, 

 and rough. Colour on back blackish, belly silvery ; mouth 

 very small for a fish of its size. Maxillce hard, sharp and 

 rough ; eyes small ; where the body passed into the caudal 

 portion, the skin was marked with a transverse band, or de- 

 pression." 



" Liver large, thick, and whitish ; gall-bladder very large ; 

 its duct opened into the stomach, not far from its superior 



