304 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



hatched fry; and in August he dragged in Belfast Bay 

 and found a sinjjle full-i?rown valve of Pectiincuhis 

 pilosus, the hollow of which was close studded over, for 

 the space of a sfjuare inch, with the eggs of this fish, 

 the diameter of the eggs being about ^/j^ of an inch 

 (r6 mm.). L1LL.JEBORG also found the eggs of this 

 species in empty mussel-shells on the coast of Norway, 

 in the month of July. 



Hughes" observed this fish in an acjuarium, and 

 has recorded its variations of colour from yellowisli 

 white to a rich carnation liuc, as well as its sluggish- 

 ness and general inactivity. With regard to its food, 

 he remarked that it ate small portions of mussel, oyster 

 or ra^v fish. Lilljeborg found in its stomach chieflv 

 j'oung specimens of shellfish (Rissoce) and small crusta- 

 ceans {Copepoda and Ostracoda). 



CYTTOMORPHI. 



Body deep and compressed, hut comparat'ivehj sJiorf, oral, irJicri seen from the side. Bai/s of the uiipdired fins 

 principally soft; anterior {spinous-rayed) part of the dorsal fin shorter {tvith fewer rays) than tJie posterior (soft- 

 rayed). Ventral fins thoracic or jugular, ivell-deveJoped, independent of each other and longer than the pectoral 

 fins. No osseous connexion betiveen the suhorhital ring and the preopercuhnn. Anal papilla u-anting. Sccdcs small 

 {sometimes ivanting), sometimes scattered and imbedded in the skin, sometimes imbricated and furnished with small 

 spines; at the edges of the body we sometimes find strong spinous plates. 



The present series, like the following one, reminds 

 us in a certain degree, by the weak development of 

 the scales, of the series of the Mackerel type; and 

 Cuvier' actually referred the John Dory, the best known 

 type of this series, to the Mackerel family. Gunther" 

 was also impressed with this kinship between the Cj^tto- 

 raorphs and the Mackerels, but referred the former to 

 a distinct family, CyttidcB, by the side of the Horse- 

 Mackerels. One abnormal form'', which pei'haps belongs 

 to this series, renders the latter difficult to characterize; 

 and though the kinship between these forms and the 

 Mackerels is undeniable — though the grounds for this 

 opinion are entirely difterent from those given by Cu- 

 viER — as we shall see more clearly in the following 

 series, still, as we have followed Gunther in his ar- 

 rangement of the Vaagmaer-fishes as a separate series, 

 in order to be consistent we must treat the Cyttomorphs 

 in the same way, for their kinship with the Mackerels 

 is apparently much less natural than the ties between 

 them and the following series. The spinous plates of 

 the Horse-Mackerels, both in position and in shape, are 



entirel)- difterent from those of the Cyttomorphs, whose 

 anoinalopterous characters also unfit them for a place 

 in the Mackerel-series. The spinous plates of these 

 fishes are more like those which occur in the Gur- 

 nards and Lump Sucker, and when they are want- 

 ing at spots Avliere they may occur in other cases — 

 e. g. at the base of the spinous-rayed (first) dorsal fin 

 in the subgenus Zeus (s. str.) — they are replaced by 

 lateral spinous processes at the base of each spinous 

 ray, in which form they also appear in the genus Tra- 

 chypterus within the following series. The typical Cytto- 

 morphs are thus so closely and distinctly approximated 

 to the forms of the following series, that their inclusion 

 in the latter is a point \vhich shoidd rather be investi- 

 gated. There too, we shall find the body compressed, 

 the mouth highly protrusile, with the gape turned up- 

 wai'ds when the mouth is closed, the maxillary bones 

 broad and flat, the brandies of the lower jaw broad 

 and hanging down below the isthmus behind, the inter- 

 operculum large, the ventral fins long and furnished 

 with numerous rays, and the pectoral fins short and 



" The Zoologist for 1864 (vol. XXII), p. 91.31. 



' "Les Zees ont deux dorsales et quelques autres caracteres osteologiques voisins de certains perco'ide.s; mais la nature de lenrs 

 t%umens, les boucliers dont les' eotes sont amies, les rapprochent incontestablenient des scoinberoi'des a corps cuirasse :" Cuv., Val., Hist. 

 Nat. Poiss., vol. X, p. 2. 



"^ Introd. Stud. Fish., p. 450; Handh. IchthyoL, p. 318. 



'' The obscure genus Oreosoma, Cuv., Val., Hist. Xat. Poiss., vol. IV, p. 51,5. tab. 9'.). 



