LUMPENUS. 



227 



arc inserted below and between tlie l)ascs of the pec- 

 toral lins, in older specimens farther forward. The spi- 

 nous ray measures about '',( of tlic lenf^th of the fin; 

 and of the three soft rays tlie innermost is the longest, 

 its length diminishing with age from 5 to 3 % of that 

 of the bod)-. The distance between the ventral fins and 

 the beginning of the anal fin varies between 25 and 

 24 % of the length of the body. The first rajs of the 

 long dorsal fin are small, but thick, and gradually in- 

 crease in length to the lltli or 1 2th ray, from which 

 jjoiiit the fin is of uniform lieight, measuring about "/s 

 of the greatest depth of tlie body, back to about the 

 40th ray, and then very gradually diminishes in height. 

 It begins almost in a line with the tip of the opercular 

 flap, and is united by its membrane to the base of the 

 caudal tin. The spinous ray of the anal tin is about 

 half as long as the soft ra}^ immediately behind it. 

 At the beginning, to about the 5th ray, this fin also 

 increases in height, and then becomes straight and of 

 the same height as the dorsal fin, ending in a line with 

 the termination of the latter, and united in the same 

 way to the base of the caudal fin. The caudal fin 

 grows more and more pointed with age. Its length is 

 generally about 10 or 11 % of that of the body, but, 

 according to Stuwitz, may rise as high as 14 %, and 

 thus be nearly half as long again as the head". 



Tlie colouring of the body in the living fish, ac- 

 cording to Fries, is superiorly pale brownish, shading 

 into blue, with irregular, grayish brown spots, dotted 

 with a, darker colour, and uniting into indistinct, oblique, 

 ti-ansverse bands. The lower part of the body is lighter 

 and without spots, shading in front into blue and behind 

 into greenish yellow. A row of about nine oblong, 

 brownish spots follows the lateral line, which is tinged 

 Avith yellow. The head of the same colour as the body, 

 but without spots. Gill-cover bright green and yellows 

 Iris brass-coloured with a silvery lustre, but this patch 

 of colour is very narroAV superiorly, as a wide strip of 

 the eye is here brownish black. Dorsal fin pale, with 

 transparent membrane, in certain lights with a hand- 

 some bluish lustre, and striped with about 12 wavy, pale 

 brown bands, sloping in a posterior direction. Pectoral 

 fins with j^elloAvish rays, and with this exception pale 

 and without spots, like tlie \entral and anal tins. 

 Caudal tin with 6 indistinct bands — in young spe- 



cimens only 8 or 4 — of pale In-own spots on the 

 yellowish i-ays. 



Pyloric appendages only two, but fairly large. 

 Ovaries united, but in front distinct from each other. 

 In the females we find a small anal papilla, which seems 

 to be prominent, however, onl)' during the spawning- 

 season. 



Tlie Shaip-tailed Lumpenus has been found on the 

 coast of Bohuslan on onlj- few occasions, first b}- B. 

 Fries, who in January, 1837, in the outer part of Gull- 

 maren, took a female 190 mm. long in a seine. Since 

 that time Mai.m has recorded two captures of this spe- 

 cies in the south of Bohuslan; and in May, 1880, Mr. 

 C. A. Hansson found a specimen 154 mm. long in the 

 gullet of a Gadiis morrhua from the neighbourhood of 

 Stromstad. Almost at the same time as Fries, Stuwitz 

 and EsMARK discovered the species in Christiania Fjord. 

 It is of more common occurrence on the west coast of 

 Norway, ^vhere it had already been remarked by Strom; 

 and it seems to be most numerous in the extreme north, 

 in Finmark, in which district it was obtained by Lill- 

 JEBORG in 1848. As early as 1786 it was described 

 and figured by Mohr as an Icelandic species. It occurs 

 in Spitzbergen too, up to 80° N., according to Collett; 

 and it is stated to occur in Greenland by Reinhardt 

 and Kr0YER. Thus it is really an arctic species, but 

 also lives in the Baltic, w^here it was first observed by 

 Mr. G. VON Yhlen, who in 1861 sent to the Royal 

 Museum two females, respectively 230 and 274 mm. 

 long, which had been taken in Bravik. Brenner has 

 subsequently recorded its capture in the summer of 

 1871, off Hogland in the Gulf of Finland; and Mubius 

 and Heincke have received a specimen 25 cm. long, 

 taken ^vith a Herring-net in Kiel Harbour on the 22nd 

 of November, 1877. Finally Day has added this spe- 

 cies to the fauna of Scotland by his description of a 

 specimen which was taken on the 31st of May, 1884, 

 in a trawl, at a depth of 40 fathoms, 15 miles off St. 

 Abb's Head. 



With reo-ard to its habits nothing is known, save 

 that it is generally taken in the seine, and therefore in 

 comparativelj' shallow water and near the coast. The 

 specimen taken by Fries had evidently just deposited 

 its spawn; and the spawning-season thus seems to oc- 

 cur during the winter*. (Fries, Smitt.) 



" Day gives a figure and description of a singularly-shaped caudal fin in a male of tliis species, the five middle rays (though perfect) 

 being considerably shorter than the outer ones on each side. 



* "Vid jtiltideii" (at Christmas), says NiLSSON, not "iin Jtdi" (Mob., Hcke). 



