IfiS 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



Triglops Fiiigelii is known in Greenland", J;ui- 

 Mayen Island'' and Spitzbergen as ;i fairly rare species. 

 It was not until 1S77 that the Bi'itish Museum was 

 successful in obtaining a specimen. The S-^vedish ex- 

 jieditions to Spitzbergen, however, have taken it at se- 

 \eral spots in the northernmost ])arts of these islands 

 and in Stor Fjord, at depths varying from 3 or 4 up 

 to 105 fathoms. The \'ega Expedition brought h(nne 

 a small specimen, taken at a de])th of 15 fathoms, north 

 of their ^\•inter-quarters in Behring Strait, and two 

 females 154 mm. in length, taken at a depth of 30 

 fathoms, off Port Clarence. The geographical extension 

 of the species is thus circumpolar. On the coast of 

 America, according to Jordan and Gilbert, its range 

 extends from Greenland as far south as Cape Cod. In 

 Norwegian Finraark it was found in 1866 by Esmark 

 at a dei)th of 30 fathoms, off Hammerfest, and by 

 LoBERO near Vadso. It has been met with l)y G. 0. 

 Sars near tlie Lofoden Islands at as great a depth as 

 150 fathoms, and also off (Jhristiansund. Collett also 

 mentions a specimen, a gravid female 163 mm. in 

 length, from North Cape, and several others, the largest 

 <4' which was 80 mm. in length, from the neighbour- 

 iiood of Tromso. It must be regarded, however, as 

 one of tlie rarest Scandinavian fishes. Its occurence in 

 tiie Cattegat is, therefore, highly remarkable. A spe- 



cimen 13 cm. in length (excluding the caudal fin) was 

 taken here by Mr. A. Svensson, taxidermist to the 

 Royal Museum, during a visit to Trilslof, near Varberg, 

 in the summer of 1867. It was subsequently stuffed 

 b}- the same gentleman, and presented to Christianstad 

 Museum. By the kindness of Lecturer Wahlstedt we 

 have been enaljled to examine this specimen. In it 

 we find T). 10|20; A. 22; P. 17; there thus being an 

 unconunonly small number of rays in the second dorsal 

 fin. The black spots below the lateral line, too, ai-e 

 united into a broad, undulating, longitudinal stripe, 

 extending as far as the caudal fin, and more continuous 

 and distinct than those we have seen in arctic speci- 

 mens. These dift"ei*ences, however, can scarcely be re- 

 garded otherwise than as individual peculiarities. 



The food and the manner of life of this species 

 are probably the same as those of the preceding one, 

 even if, as Collett states, it be still more truly a 

 bottom-fish. This opinion is borne out by the forma- 

 tion of the lower rays in the ])ectoral fins, which are 

 free to a still greater extent of their length, and by 

 the help of \vhich it proliably creeps or flounders along 

 in exactly the same way as the Gurnards. Collett 

 estimates the number of eggs in a female 102 mm. in 

 length at five or six hundred. 



Genus COTTUS. 



I'lro distivd dorsal fins. Skin naked or tr'ith spines or spinous tubercles. Head fairhj Jarr/e, hut never more than 

 Va '"'/ ''"' li'ngth of the body. Uppermost j)reopercular spine simple, straight or curved. Palatine bones toothless, 

 hut the ronier irith teeth. Branehiostcyal 'membranes either miited hi/ a free fold across the isthmns or sepa- 

 rated hji the latter, (jillslit behind the fonrth branchial arch n-anting or shrunk into a Jiolc. Less than :20 rags 



in the (iiad fin. 



\\"\t\\ the limitations generallj' given to this genus 

 at the prt'st'ut time, it contains some forty more or 

 less known or recognised species". As Artedi in his 

 arrangement of the genus gave the first place to the 

 lliver Bullhead {Cotfus gobio), this species has been 

 adopted as the true type of the genus', and \\ hen Gi- 

 UAKD, in 1849", formed a special genus to receive the 



fresh-water Cotti, ^\•hich in Araeinca seem to be far 

 more numerous than in the (31d World, basing his ar- 

 guments on the weaker spinous equipment of the head, 

 the less marked division between the head and the body, 

 the smaller mouth and the lower dorsal fin of these 

 species, he retained the name Cottns for this genus and 

 gave the other Cotti the generic name AcantJiocottus. 



" RKl.NIIARti, MaLMGREN, LCTKEN (ll)d GUNTIIEII, 11. CC. 



' Collett, 1. c. ; at a ilcplh of from 70 to 20.^ falboms. 



' Jordan and Gilbert recognise 34 North American species of this genns. 



'' Cuv., Val., Hist. Nut: Poiss., vol. IV, p. 143. 



<■ Proc. Bosl. Soe. Nat. Ilisf., vol. Ill, p. 183. 



