3 o DISCOVERY REPORTS 



15. The problem of sensory perception in the adult C. holbolli is discussed. The fish is functionally 

 blind, and olfaction is considerably reduced. It is suggested that the lateral line organs are more likely 

 than the esca to undertake this function of informing the fish of its environment. 



POSTSCRIPT ON A RECORD FROM THE AZORES 

 Since the above account was written I am able to record, again from a Sperm whale's stomach, but this 

 time from the Azores, a further adult specimen of Ceratias holbolli. 



During my investigations on Azores whaling, conducted in the summer of 1949, the stomach contents 

 of a certain Sperm whale (no. F21, 3, 16-0 m. long) were found to include a remnant of fish skin, about 

 600 sq.cm. in area, greyish black in colour and closely beset with spines. Any associated remains were 

 too much digested and were not recovered.* The shape of the spines, and their arrangement in the 

 skin, betrayed the latter as unmistakably belonging to a specimen of C. holbolli. The largest spines were 

 o-6 cm. high and 0-9 cm. across their shield-shaped bases. These measurements agree with those of 

 Regan's specimen (p. 24) and suggest that the Azores individual was about the same size, i.e. around 

 100 cm. total length. 



The whale was killed on 11 August 1949. I witnessed the harpooning and lancing, and noticed that 

 a giant squid, vomited in the death-flurry, was quite fresh. The whale had therefore recently been 

 feeding, and so it is likely that the angler fish had been swallowed within, say, a 5-mile radius of the 

 position where the whale had been harpooned. The whaleboat was then about 20 miles south-west of 

 Capelinhas Lighthouse, Fayal; this gives a position approximately 38 21' N, 29 08' W, and the chart 

 shows soundings of between 1300 and 1700 m. within a 5-mile radius of this point. The record has been 

 inserted in Fig. 6 and marked X, but it does not appear in Table 3. 



The total number of recorded adults of C. holbolli (Table 3) now stands at fifteen; but only two of 

 these, the Antarctic and Azores specimen, have been secured from oceanic water. Yet it is worth 

 remarking that out of 106 Sperm whale stomachs I have examined to date, two contained C. holbolli 

 among the ten stomachs which held fish remains of some kind or another. This not only seems a high 

 incidence for what has previously been supposed to be a very rare fish (p. 3), but it also tends to 

 support the view that the thirteen specimens from the coastal fishing banks happen to have strayed 

 horizontally from their proper habitat in oceanic water (pp. 25, 27). 



REFERENCES 



Aristotle. His/oria Animalium, iv, Book ix. Translation by D'Arcy Thompson, Oxford, 1940. 



Beebe, W. & Crane, J., 1947. Eastern Pacific Expeditions of the New York Zoological Society XXXVII Deep Sea Ceratioid 



Fishes. Zoologica, xxxi, pp. 151-82. 

 Bertelsen, E., 1943. Notes on the Deep-Sea Angler-Fish Ceratias holbolli Kr. based on Specimens in the Zoological Museum of 



Copenhagen. Vidensk. Medd. fra Dansk naturh. Foren., evil, pp. 185-206. 

 Brauer, A., 1908. Die Tiefsee-Fische. II. Anatomischer Tiel. Deutschen Tiefsee Expedition, 'Valdivia', 1S98-99, xv, part 2, 



pp. 1-262. 

 Chadwick, H. C, 1929. Feeding Habits of the Angler Fish, Lophius piscatorius. Nature, Lond., cxxiv, p. 337. 

 Chun, C, 1896. Atlantis. Biologische studien tiber pelagische Organismen. Zoologica, Stuttgart, xix, pp. 1-260. 

 Coe, W. R., 1946. The Means of Dispersal of Bathy pelagic Animals in the North and South Atlantic Oceans. Amer. Nat., lxxx, 



PP- 453- 6 9- 

 Dahlgren, U., 1928. The Bacterial Light Organ of Ceratias. Science, lxvii, pp. 65-66. 



Deacon, G. E. R., 1937. The Hydrology of the Southern Ocean. Discovery Reports, xv, pp. 1-124. 



De Beer, G. R., 1940. Embryology and Taxonomy. In The New Systematics, ed. by J. S. Huxley. London. 



* For this record I am entirely indebted to Senhor Jose dos Reis, manager of the whaling station at Horta, Fayal. When the 

 whale concerned was worked up I was still absent with the whaleboats, and Senhor dos Reis kindly examined the stomach for 

 me. He retrieved this dingy piece of skin and, with admirable forethought, kept it three days against my return. 



