444 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



The relation between the Turbot and the Brill is 

 further illustrated by the form which lias received of 

 Malm the specific name of hyhridus. \^\' have already 

 remarked the existence of hybrids of the Turbot and 

 Brill. QuELCH states" that such specimens are taken 

 in spring on the Dutch coast, but that they are fairly 

 rare. "They resemble the turbot in shape, but tlie 

 head is like the brill. They have neither the spiny 

 protuberances of the turbot nor the scales of the brill, 

 but are thickly covered with small horny plates, a sort 

 of compromise between the two." Moreau's variety 

 of the Brill from the Mediterranean (1. c, p. 342) is 



also an intermediate form, which may most naturally 

 be explained on the assumption of hybridism. In this 

 form not only are the anterior rays of the dorsal fin 

 less ramified than in the typical Brill, but the length 

 of the upper jaw, according to Moreau's measurements, 

 is also more than 12 % of the length of the body, a 

 character which we liavc invariably found to belong 

 to the Turbot''. A number of intermediate forms, 

 varying in their degrees of resemblance, one more like 

 the Turbot and another more like the Brill, may thus 

 be assumed to exist; and at least two have been met 

 with Avithin the limits of the Scandinavian fauna. 



THE BRILL-LIKE TURBOT. BOTHUS MAXIMUS HYBRIDUS. 



Fis?. 113. 



1^4 



\i ' 





•% 



Fig. 113. Bothus ma.riiinis Injbridus, 0^, -,3 of the natural size. Taken at a depth of 20 fathoms in Strijnistad Fjord, 



on the 21st of May, 1887, by C. A. Hansson. 



" Proc. Zool. Soo. Lond. 1869, p. 473. 



' EkstRom's description of the Baltic Turbot Avitli 60 rays in the dorsal tin and 49 in tlie anal can liardly be explained in this manner, 

 for the Brill has never been n)et with so far up the Baltic. 



