526 THE MACROTJRUS STRuMII ET RUPESTRIS. 



inches in length, and is not believed to exceed a foot. 

 Little seems known of its habits ; but Professor B. Fries 

 imagines that it lives for the most part in comparatively 

 shallow water amongst seaweeds. Its food consists of 

 various kinds of marine animals — crustaceans, molluscs, 

 sea-ui*chius, and sea-stars — of which one finds the remains 

 in its stomach. Its flesh is white and good, but from the 

 slimy and unsightly appearance of the fish it is for the 

 most i^art looked down upon by the fishermen, and 

 seldom brought to market. 



Tlie Ilacrourus Stromii, Sundevall {Ilacrourus Norve- 

 qicus, Nilss. ; Stroms' Sko-Uist, i. e. Strom's shoe-last, 

 Svv.), a Northern fish, though unknown in our Skiirgard, 

 has been captured in one instance on the Jutland Ileef. 

 On the western coast of Norway, from its southern 

 extremity to the North Cape, however, it is not so vei'y 

 uncommon, and is there known by the name oi Sko-liist. 

 Its usual length is from two feet and a half to three feet. 

 It is a deep-sea fish, and is often taken in from 80 to 

 120 fathoms, for the most part in deep fjords near pre- 

 cijiitous cliffs, but at times at a distance from land. Of 

 its breeding and other habits Northern naturalists seem 

 in entire ignorance. 



The MacroiD'us riipestris, Bloch {Fabricms' Sko-ldst, 

 Sw.), also a Northern fish, has only on one occasion been 

 identified in the Scandinavian seas. This was in 1839, 

 at Hammerfest, not far from the North Cape., and in the 

 following year Professor Sundevall gave a description of it, 

 in the "Transactions of the Royal Academy of Sciences," 

 under the name of M. Fabricii. 



