BIHANG TILL K. SV. VET.-AKAD. HANDL. BAND 24. AFD. IV. N:0 38. 2 
speaks is more decided in the South (Austria and France). This 
may depend on the more favourable circumstances in which 
the fish lives in those countries, and on the larger size it 
attains, which causes the fins to be more strongly developed. 
Lastly, with regard to C. poecilopus, this also seems to 
vary in a similar manner. HECKEL declares that it always 
has unbranched rays; and among the 60 specimens I have 
had under examination I did not find a single one in which 
to the naked eye the rays appeared branched; but Professor 
SMITT says that, using a magmnifying glass, he found that 
the rays in Cottus poecilopus have the same tendency to 
divide at the point as in OC. gobio: CoLrEtt declares that 
full-grown specimens of C. poecilopus have 3 or 4 branched 
rays in the pectoral fins. JEITTELES also states that he met 
with one specimen that proved to have rays branched. One 
of the Italian specimens, which we suggested might be C. 
poecilopus, as we mentioned above (p. 3), had, Reco to 
GÖNTHER, branched rays in both ventral and pectoral fins. 
The differently spotted fins. 
As another important difference between OC. poecilopus 
and C. gobio, including the separate forms of the latter, 
HEcCKEL states that in the former we always find 6 or 7 dark 
bands across the ventral fins, while in the other the ventrals 
are always without such bands. This character is pointed 
out by all the authors, though they do not all lay equal 
stress upon it. GÖNTHER considers it to be of little value, 
as the same species 1s found to be variable in colour accord- 
ing to season and locality. JEITTELES, NILSSON, and LILLJE- 
BORG regard this character as a significant one, differing 
therein from Professor SMItTT, who declares it to be of little 
importance, as the bands are sometimes indistinct, and as 
C. gobio also appears sometimes to have spotted ventral fins. 
COoLLETT, moreover, describes the bands in younger specimens 
of C. poecilopus as being indistinct. 
In my examination I found this character banöralljp con- 
stant, and in most cases we are able by this means to dis- 
tinguish the two forms at least in middle-sized and large 
specimens. In specimens of voung C. poecilopus, however, 
the spots are usually indistinct, as CoLrzrett also remarks. 
