BY JAS. K. TOSH, M.A., B. SC. 181 



whiting stalk one of these worms. The fish swimming low 

 down carefully approaches one of these hollows, and after 

 manoeuvering for position, suddenly makes a dart for the opening 

 of the hole. All that falls to the share of the whiting is about 

 half-an-inch of the lip of the rapidly retreating snout. The 

 snout can be used effectively as bait. Both the sand-lobster and 

 the spoon worm can be taken in quantity between tidemarks. 

 Young whiting feed on small sand Crustacea, and worms. 



I think it possible to connect the whiting's habit of burying 

 in the sand with the fact that it hunts its food largely among 

 animals that take refuge there. 



'o^ 



The Ventral Fins. 



The ventral fin of the whiting is peculiar in having the first 

 ray forked only once, and the divisions of the ray prolonged a 

 quarter-of-an-inch or more beyond the tip of the fin. In swim- 

 ing along the bottom the tips of the ventral fins are trailed over 

 the surface, and the prolongations of the first ray look somewhat 

 like feelers. These prolongations are much larger proportionally 

 to the size of the fin in young fish than in adults. Moreover in 

 fish up to a year old, the ventral fins are whitish and more 

 noticeable than the orange yellow fins of the old fish. No 

 special innervation could be detected for these elongations though 

 they are probably to a certain extent tactile. Their development 

 in the young fish is figured on Plate XIII. The smallest 

 whiting that could be taken with ventral fins was 13 mms. long. 

 The fins were 1 mm. (fig. 1). They consist of a long process 

 that would become the first ray, and the spine is represented by 

 a pretty broad flap. Fig. 2 shows the spine and the first 2 rays 

 in a fish 17'5 mms. long. The first ray has forked and the 

 division next the spine has grown out into a filament. Figs. 3, 

 4 and 5 show the other division growing out after the first. In 

 fig. 7 the filaments are of about equal length in which condition 

 they remain. Later the other rays fork four times. Fig 6 is a 

 sketch of a sport in which the first ray tried to divide into four. 

 Three of these divisions became elongated, but the fourth 

 appeared to be undergoing atrophy. The other ventral fin in 

 this specimen was normal. 



Markings. 



The young of S. Hasseusis are marked somewhat similarly 

 to .S. maculata. The markings practically disappear at about 

 two years. In a whiting about 6 months' old, the markings are 



