SKA SCOKI'loN. 



181 



The Sen Scdi-pion is mic of tluMiiost vjiriahlt; forms I)\- tlie low t;iil to tlint ^^roiin of the ;^euus of which 



;iii(l h;is thci'cfoi-c, not without i-enson, hofiic iiuiiiy sy- 

 str-iaatic iinmcs. The mei'it of referriiiii' ;ill tlie specific 

 iiaiiies i;i\cii in the above list of sviionynis to one single 

 species, was iirst gained hy Professor IMAi-MCiiii'-.N in his 

 excellent revision of "The Fishes of Spitzbergen." lie- 

 sides the varions forms which appear within the limits 

 now accejitcd for the species, we lintl several other 

 forms which cannot he included within these limits, but 

 which, either as intermediate forms or by their changes 

 of development, range themselves so close to Cotfus 

 scnrphis that natural series may be traced in one di- 

 rection to the gemis ('iiftin/rtilKs, in another to f'oftus 

 </ii(«Jri(()n/is and in a tinrd to the more nearly Scor- 

 ptviioid Ctitfits hiiliidis. One of these intermediate forms 



Cotfus i/imdiicon'ls is tiie best-known representative. 

 I'l-om this group Cotfus si-or/)iiis itself forms the tran- 

 sition to tlu; Ijiiljdlis {Eiiojjlir//s) gr(jnp. 



The Sea Scoi'pion — as in some respects the fol- 

 lowing species — thus stands at the centre, so to speak, 

 (jf the developmental range of the family, with branches 

 in several directions; and its vai-ieties of form aain 

 greater importance, the more i'ldly we are able to 

 explain the circumstances from which they have arisen. 

 MOmus and Heinckk have given' the following list of 

 tlie changes of form which occurred in about 300 spe- 

 cimens examined by thera and taken in the south-west 

 of the Baltic. The largest of these specimens were 

 300 mm. in leno-th. 



Fig. 53. Cottiis platyceplialns, Najtschkaj, lOtli April, 1879, Vega Expedition. Natural size. 



we find in the Siberian Catfiis platijcephalus" , which 

 1)^- Caff IIS ffi'inoj)fei-iis'' and ('offKS Bi'iniilf'ii' is united 

 to Cotfus srorpuis, but ])y its small eyes, the great 

 l)readth of the interorliital space and the long low'er 

 ja^v, which projects be\'ond the tip of the snout, guides 

 us to the transition to Coffni/cnlus, and again is referred 



229 specimens (84 %) had only 3 spines in tlie pre- 



opercular margin, 

 28 ,, (10 %) had 4 spines in the preopercular 



margin on one side of the body, 

 17 „ (6 %) had 4 spines in the preopercular 



margin on each side of the bod)-, 



" P.u,i..\s: Zooijr. Roits. Asiiit., torn. Ill, ]>. 1.!.';; but without palatine teeth and with the fin-foriiiiila: D. 9|15; .4. 13; P. 16; V. V3; 

 (_'../; + l + .)'. This is (he form iu whieh this species appears in the collections of the Vega E.xpeditiou from Najtschkaj (the extreme north-east 

 point of Siberia) — uf. the Catalogue of the Swedish Department of the Fisheries Exhibition in Loudon 1883, p. 174. It thus does not 

 tally with the description given by Pallas, to whicli K.ner's Cottiis tieniopterits perhaps answers better. As P.\Ll,.\s states, however, that his 

 species is common in these regions, and as it would appear never to have been found again by later explorers, there seems to me to be very 

 little danger in employing his name, which is at any rate most suitable for this species. 



'' Kner, Stzber. Aknil. Wiss. Wien. Math. Naturw. CI., LVIII, I (1868), p. 310, pi. IV, fig. 10. 



' Stelndachner, ibid., LV, 1 (1807), p. 700, pi. Ill, figs. 1 and 2. 



'' Fische der Ostsce, p. 44. 



