ARCTIC SEA-CATS. 



237 



original of our figure. Its length was 914 nun. In 

 this specimen too, tlic distance between the anal tin 

 and the tip of the snout is less than half the length 

 of the body; and thus Aiiarrhichas minor, like the 

 preceding species, is probably distinguished in this 

 respect from the following species; but the variations 

 in the specimens from Greenland mentioned above throw 

 a doubt on the constancy of this character. In Todd's 

 figure of An. minor (in Bean, 1. c.) the beginning of 

 the anal fin is also vei'y near the middle of the body. 

 In our specimen the row of vomerine teeth is scarcely 

 any longer than the palatine rows. The former row, 

 which consists of six teeth, the two posterior pairs 

 being obtuse (the one tooth of the innermost pair even 

 flat), the front pair obtusely pointed and showing more 

 lateral compression than the others, is 28'5 mm. long; 

 while the row on the riglit palatine bone is 28 mm. 

 long, and consists of 10 pointed teeth. All the teeth 

 are red — Stenstrup explains this as due to the cir- 



cumstance that sea-urchins compose the chief food of 

 the fish — , but the jaw-teeth and palatine teeth are 

 white at the point. 



The Spotted Sea-cat has long been known in Ice- 

 land and Greenland as a still more useful fish than the 

 preceding species. Zouiew was the first to describe it 

 as l^elonging to the White Sea and the north coast of 

 Russia; and Esmark the first to publish an identification 

 of the European Anarrhichas pantherinus with the 

 Hhjre of Iceland. In the North this species is more 

 common than the preceding one — off VardO, according 

 to Si'ARRE-ScHNEiDER, it is taken in large quantities — ; 

 but southwards its geographical range seems to end 

 in the; neighbourhood of Bergen. On the American 

 coast it has been met with in the Bay of Fundy". It 

 seems generally to keep to deep water, descending to 

 at least as great a depth as 200 fathoms (Collett). 

 Its food is of the same nature as that of the preced- 

 ing species. 



THE BLUE SEA-CAT (sw. blaa hafkatten). 



ANARRHICHAS LATIFRONS. 



Plate XIII, fig. 2. 



Length of the pectoral fins less than 13 % of that of the body. Vomerine row of teeth shorter th((n tlie row on 

 each of the palatine bones. The dorsal fin ends in an even curve doivn to the base of the caudal fin. Top of 

 the frontal bones behind the eyes at least as broad as the interorbital space. Colouring dark grayish brown or a 

 lighter chocolate-colour, with indistinct, round or rounded quadrangular, black spots, partly arranged in sUglitly 



marked, transverse bands across the back. 



R. br. 7; D. 17—79; A. 45—47; P. 20—22; V. 0; 

 C. ,!• + 1 4 + .r ; Vert. 79—81. 



■Syti. (?) Anarvhichas deniicitlatiis, Kroyeb, Voi/. Scant!., Lap., 

 Gaim., tab. 12, fig. 1; Id., Overs. Vid. Selsk. Forh. Kbhvn 

 1844, p. 140; Gthe, Cat. Brit. Mus. Fish., vol. Ill, p. 211. 

 Anarrhichas latifrons, Steenstr., Forli. Skand. Naturf. Mote, 

 Sthlin 1842, p. 647 (sine descr.); Id., Vid. Meddel. Natuih. 

 For. Kbhvn, 1876, p. 201, tab. Ill, fig. 3; Coll., Forh. 

 Vid. Selsk. Christ., 1879, No. 1, p. 46, tab. II; Bean, Proc. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. II (1879), p. 218; Si'. Schneid., 

 Tromso Mus. Aarsber. 1882, p. 21; Jord., Gilb., Bull. U. S. 

 Nat. Mus., No. 16, p. 782; Lill.i. , .S'y., iVor(/. Fisk., vol.1, 

 p. 546; Coll., N. Mag. Naturv., Christ. 1884 (Bd. 29), 

 p. 67. 



Ohs. On reading Collett's description (Forh., I. c, 1879, p. 

 57) of the teeth in Anarrhichas latifrons, and comparing it with 

 KrOYER's figures of the teeth in Anarrliichas denticulatus, we find so 

 close a correspondence between them that we can hardly escape the 

 conclusion that they both refer to this species. Nor is Kroyer's 



figure of the external appearance of the fish incompatible with this 

 opinion, especially if we remember Steenstrup's observation (Vid. 

 Meddel., I. c, p. 179) that this figure is probably draw^n from a 

 badly-preserved specimen, the snout of which may very likely have 

 been flattened. Still, in this figure the caudal fin, the pectoral fin, 

 and the head are longer than in Anarrhichas latifrons, according to 

 our present knowledge of it; and we ought, therefore, not yet to 

 deny the possibility of grounds for Steenstrup's assumption that a 

 fourth species of this genus m.iy await our further investigations, and 

 that for it should be reserved the name of An. denticulatus. 



This species too, with our present knowledge of 

 its individual peculiarities, is externally very like the 

 two preceding ones. The snout, however, is more 

 pointed. The deeper form of the body, the gi'eatest 

 depth being more than 22 % of the length, may also 

 occur, according to Bean's measurements, in large spe- 

 cimens of Anarrhichas lupus; and in this case the cha- 

 racter which might otherwise be employed, that in the 



" Brown-Goode, Fish. a. Fish. Industries of U. S., sect. I. p. 249. 



