[ 274 ] 



Notes and Memoranda. 



Gadus esmarkii (Miss.) in shallow water. A living specimen of 

 this fish was taken on August 27th, 1900, in a tuck-net worked by- 

 Mr. T. Curtis on the shore of the Hamoaze, off Coombe Lake, between 

 Saltash and the mouth of the Eiver Lynher. Associated with it were 

 numbers of mackerel, garfish, and young gadoids. Owing to its 

 " bastard " characters, which struck the eye of the fisherman when 

 handling it, the specimen was brought to the Laboratory for examination. 

 Its capture is interesting for several reasons. It is the first specimen 

 of Esmark's Pout recorded from the English Channel, and the only 

 specimen hitherto obtained in littoral water, at any rate in the British 

 area. The previous British records are enumerated in Holt's papers in 

 Trans. Roij. Dublin Soc. v. 1895, p. 431, and this Journal, vol. v. 1897, 

 p. 79. The dimensions and fin-ray formula of this specimen are given 

 below, together with those of the less mutilated specimen from the 

 Bristol Channel referred to by Holt in the second of his papers. 



Length, without caudal rays 



„ with „ 



Depth, maximum 



,, min. (caudal peduncle) 

 Length of head 

 Diameter of eye 

 Length of snout (preorbital) 

 Interorbital breadth 

 Fin- rays — D^ -h Dg + D3 



,, A^-t-Ag 



It will be observed that in the proportions of the eye and head 

 ( = ^/z) these southern specimens agree with the Norwegian type (Smitt, 

 Scandinavian Fishes, 1892, p. 502), but that the ratio of length to 

 depth of body falls below the minimum ratio assigned to this character 

 for Scandinavian specimens by Smitt. The figures given by this 

 authority show that the total length varies between 5-1 and 5-9 times 

 the depth. In the Plymouth specimen the length is only 4-8 times the 

 depth, thus approximating to the proportions of most of the Scottish 

 and Irish specimens described by Giinther and Holt (4i times). It 



