26 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



ON ANARRHICHAS MINOR, Olafsen, AND ITS 



OCCURRENCE ON THE ABERDEENSHIRE 



COAST. 



By Morris Young, F.E.S., Curator of the Free Museum, Paisley; 

 and William Eagle Clarke, F.L.S. 



Plate I. 



The specimen figured was captured in a trawl off Aberdeen 

 on or about the 1 7th of October last, and was sent to the 

 Glasgow market for sale. Here it came under the notice of 

 Mr. Robert Beith, who purchased and presented it to the 

 Paisley Museum, where it is now on exhibition as a mounted 

 specimen. 



The fish was a female and contained about a cupful of 

 ova. It weighed 26 pounds and was 49 inches in length. 

 The fin-ray formula is as follows : — D. 74 ; C. 1 6 ; A. 45 ; 

 P. 20. Canine teeth : five in the outer and inner rows of 

 the upper jaw ; and seven in the outer and inner rows of the 

 under jaw. There are now eight, but have been ten, teeth on 

 the Vomer. The teeth generally are weaker than those in 

 other specimens of Anarrhichas lupus in the Paisley Museum. 

 When in the flesh the general colour of the fish was light 

 tan, and the spots black. The transverse bands characteristic 

 of A. lupus are absent, for the slightly darker shading here 

 and there on the sides can scarcely be considered to repre- 

 sent them. I have searched the works of Yarrell and Day, 

 and other books on Ichthyology, without finding any descrip- 

 tion of such a form of the British Wolf-fish ; and I think it 

 is a distinct species for the following reasons : — 



1. The spots are so large, dark, and conspicuous, while in A. 



lupus they are not at all so. 



2. There are no signs of the distinct bands characteristic of A. lupus. 



3. The teeth are generally weaker, and the canines do not project 



nearly so much as in A. lupus. 



4. The head is much more strongly formed than in the specimens 



of A. lupus I have seen. 



5. The head is connected to the body in a much more graceful 



manner than in A. lupus. M. Y. 



