FISHES IN THE SOUTH-WESTERN DISTRICT. 45 



outline does not quite reach the middle of tlie back, and, post-anally, 

 it is not quite continuous with a row of chromatophores which appears 

 at the base of the anal fin. In front the outline is also oblique, the 

 anterior edge passing from the top of the shoulder girdle to a point 

 on the abdominal margin somewhat posterior to the ventral end of 

 the clavicle, and, on the abdomen generally and its dorsal parts in 

 particular, the chromatophores are less closely set than elsewhere. 

 There are some large chromatophores on the top and otocystic regions 

 of the head. Beyond these there are only a few quite insignificant 

 chromatophores at the base of the dorsal and on the caudal peduncle ; 

 but the eyes are, of course, fully pigmented. The larva thus appears, to 

 the naked eye, to be clothed in a continuous sheet of grey, except on 

 the head and caudal peduncle. I do not know at what period the red 

 colour of the adult is assumed, but have seen Mediterranean specimens 

 of about H inches, which were dull grey in colour. 



Day {Brit. Fish., i. p. 137), writing of the colours, regards the fish 

 as " remarkable, in that it may be banded or plain, the bands, it having 

 been suggested, being due to the example having been in a dark 

 locality." In all examples which I have seen a number of bands 

 could be detected by careful observation, viz., curved bands about the 

 dorsal parts, which are never at all conspicuous, and a series of vertical 

 bands. I found, on examination, that the vertical bands were the most 

 conspicuous in those examples in which the general red colour was of 

 a bright scarlet, and that these fish were males in breeding condition. 

 The females, also in full sexual production, were much duller in general 

 colouration, with only very faint vertical bauds. Day, previous to the 

 conclusion noted above, quotes Dunn to the effect that the bands fade 

 after spawning, but no one seems to have remarked their apparent 

 sexual significance. I do not know if this colour dimorphism is 

 accompanied by any structural difference, but mean to examine the 

 matter. 



Phrynorhombus unimaculatus. — Risso. 



Our knowledge of the reproduction of this fish rests upon the single 

 record, by the late George Brook (4th Rep. S.F.B.), of the capture of a 

 ripe female. The ovarian eggs, which were observed to contain a single 

 oil-globule, measured '96 mm. after preservation. 



On the 1st June of the present year three examples were trawled in 

 Teignmouth Bay by I\Ir. S. D. Scott and myself, and proved to consist 

 of a male and two females in breeding condition. An attempt to 

 artificially fertilize the ova from one of these was only partially 

 successful, since the male, which was dead, was not quite ripe, and only 

 a little milt could be obtained by cutting up the testes. 



