88 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



IX. 



THE TOP-KNOTS. 



BY W. ANDERSON SMITH. 



[Read 29th April, 18S4.] 



There is a class of fishes — of considerable interest 

 in themselves, if not connnercially — to which the 

 attention of Scottish naturalists might Avell be more 

 intimately directed. Of the more imj)ortant com- 

 mercial fishes we have a considerable knowledge, 

 more especially in connection with the superficial 

 facts of their natural history; but we are often 

 sadly deficient in knoAvledge of the less important 

 species, whose life history may be of no little conse- 

 quence scientifically, and which fishes may even be 

 more valuable commercially than we Avot of. 



There has been a marked deficiency of workers in 

 this department of natural science in Scotland, so 

 much so, indeed, that in our standard works Scot- 

 land figures less prominently than any well-worked 

 English county. This cannot be altogether from 

 ignorance of our marine fauna, so much as from 

 such knowledge being kept in inaccessible stores, 

 often the unpublished note-books of workers in other 

 departments ; and it is with the object of drawing 

 forth such information, as well as from a desire to 

 add our mite to the general fund, that we forward 

 such few facts as we have been able to observe in 

 connection with the Toj)-Knots. The f)rincij)al mem- 

 ber of the family, or sub-family, is Rhovibus 2^ii^'iictatus, 

 Gunther, generally known as Muller's Top-Knot; 

 and its well-rounded i)roportions point to it at once 

 as intimately allied to the Turbot, the typical RJioni- 

 hus. These very elegant flat-fish differ from other 

 members of the Pleuronectidce — as Flesus and Platessa^ 

 the Flounder and Plaice — not only from their shape, 



