626 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



Hist. Xnt. Poiss. Fc, torn. II, p. 74: MOb., Hcke, Fisch. 



Osts.. p. 101; Day, Fish. Gt. Brit.. Ivd., vol. II, p. 272, 



tab. CXLVIII; Br. Goo^y., Fisher., Fisher Industr. U.S., sect. 



I, p. 169, tab. 35; Lillj., Sv., Norg. Fish:, vol. 3, p. 425. 

 Orthagoriscus hispidus, Schn., I. c, p. 511 (juv., ex Pali.., 1. c); 



Cuv., R. anim., ed. I, torn. 2, p. 149 = 0. spinosus, Id., 



ed. 2, torn. 2, p. 870; Rich., Voy Sulph., ZooL, vol. I, 



p. 125, tab. LXII, figg. 10—12. 

 Cephalus brevis, Shaw, Gen. ZooL, vol. V. p. 437, lali. 175. 

 Diplanchias nastts, Rafin., Caratt. Ale. X. Gen., p. 17; Srr, 



Ltkn {Mola), Overs. Vid. Selsk. Forh. Kbbvn 1863, p. 36; 



Ltkn, Forb. Skand. Naturf. M. Stblm 1863, p. 378; Wahlgb. 



N. Ant. Mola ?iasus, Lunds Univ. Ar.sskr., torn. IV (1867) 



cum tab. 

 Ozodura orsini, O;. ursini, l^ympanoviium planci, Diplanchias 



nasus, Trematopsis WHliighbii, Orthagoriscus Retzii, Ort. 



ghini, Ort. Rondeletii, Ortli. Blochii, Ort. redi, Ort. aculeatus, 



Ranzani, 1. c. 

 Ostracion boops. Rich., Ichthyol. Voy. Ereb., Terr., png. 52, 



tab. XXX, figg. 18 — 21; juv. bujus specie! sec. Ltkn, Gthr, 



Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 4, vol. VIII (1871), p. 320, not. 

 Orthagoriscus ozodura, Harting, Notices Zool. etc., Verb. Akad. 



Wet. Amsterdam, D. XI (1868). 



This Sunfish attains a length of at least 8 feet 

 (2 v., metres). The largest specimen of which, to tiie 

 best of our knowledge, we can speak with ])ositive 

 certainty, was exhibited from New South Wales at the 

 Fisheries Exhibition of 1883 in London, and measured 

 8 feet in length and 12 feet in depth from the tip of 

 the dorsal tin to that of the anal". In young specimens 

 the form of the body is almost circular. At a length 

 of 4V2 — 5V2 •^^"1- t'le depth of the body is about ^/j 

 (69" — 64 %) of the length, at a length of about 2 m., 

 about V2 or 48 % thei-eof. Thus, the body is elongated 

 with age to an elliptical form, with the deptli fairly 

 uniform at the middle, while the hind part ends more 

 abruptl)', but the forepart is somewhat prolonged, form- 

 ing a short muzzle. The thickness is fairly constant, 

 being greatest above and liehind the eyes, Avhere it 

 measures about V4 of the greatest de[)th, and decreasing 

 without a break, slowly behind and more suddenl}' in 

 front. In old specimens, however, on each side above 

 the eye and back to the perpendicular from the begin- 

 ning of the insertions of the pectoral tins, we find a 

 longitudinal, blunt ridge; and a similar ridge may ap- 

 pear below the gill-opening and the pectoral fin. In 

 this manner the section of the body at the gill-openings 



is rendered more or less distinctly hexagonal, with the 

 upper and lower angles acute, the latter more so. Both 

 the dorsal and the ventral edges are sharp and carinated, 

 the former from the forehead behind the eyes back to 

 a point a little in front of the beginning of the dorsal 

 fin, the latter from a p(jint a little behind the lower 

 jaw back to the vent. The forehead, on the other hand, 

 is convex; and the tip of the snout is furnished in old 

 .specimens with a rough and sclerous, mobile, round pad, 

 which projects some distance above and in front of the 

 mouth. At the ventral margin, a little below and be- 

 hind the lower jaw, we find in old specimens a similar 

 osseous growth in tlie skin, consisting of two, or even 

 three, fusiform, bony jilates, set in a row one after an- 

 other. In old specimens, too, the ventral profile is 

 distinctly more arcuate than the dorsal. The base of 

 the caudal fin passes evenly into the body, so that the 

 fin projects like an attenuated dermal margin at the 

 end of the sharpl)' rounded (convex) hind edge of the 

 body. In young specimens the caudal fin is united 

 above and below to the lo^ver ])osterior angle of the 

 dorsal fin and the upper jiosterior angle of the anal fin: 

 but in old specimens it is distinctly separated from 

 these fins. Its form, though, as we have mentioned 

 aliove, it may sometimes present a singular abnorinitj' 

 — perhaps a malformation or the cicatrice of a 

 wound — in general corresponds to that of the hind 

 margin of the body; but at the margin, opposite the 

 tip of each ray, we find a round incision, which is 

 more or less completely filled by a compressed, osseous 

 growth. The dorsal and anal fins rise in the form of 

 acute-angled triangles — though usually ^\ith tlie ajjex 

 rounded — with the anterior margin thick but in profile 

 concave, the posterior sharp (attenuated) and convex. 

 These two fins cannot lie depressed like normal fins in 

 their longitudinal direction (the second dorsal and the 

 anal fins of the Tunnies, for example, are also stiff 

 when pressed in this direction); but they are highly 

 flexible laterally, and their movement in this direction*" 

 is assisted by the texture of the skin. Tiiis last or- 

 gan, which is covered with numbers of stiff wrinkles 

 and ridges, crossing one another in irregular squares, 



" KoNDELET stales, it is true (1. c), that tbe Sunfisb may attain a lengtb of 6 cubits (2',', m.) or more; but this assertion has not 

 been confirmed, to the best of our knowledge, in modern times, unless we accept LAOEPfeDE's statement that in 1735, on the Irish coast, a 

 Sunfisb 25 feet long was found, "which consequently appeared at niglit like a shining disk move thau 400 square feet in area" (Hist. Nat. 

 Poiss., torn. I, p. 511). 



' Sometimes 72, according to Kroyer. 



' With respect to the musculature see above. 



