Holt and Calderwood — Report on the Rarer Fishes. 411 



or six bands across the sides, shading gradually into the pink of the general sur- 

 face. The under-surface white, or white with a tinge of yellow, shading into 

 pink on the sides. The fins were pink, marked irregularly with vermiKon. 

 The iris was bright yellow. 



In the very young examples previously alluded to, the transverse bars were 

 dark-brown, and no red colour was present {teste Mr. Green) at the time of capture. 

 Some fine adult examples captured off Troup Head, Aberdeenshire, now in the 

 British Museum, show a certain amount of dark-brown in the transverse markings, 

 and thus differ from all the larger Survey specimens. The very young examples 

 have, without exception, a black spot covering the 6th, 7th, and 8th rays of the 

 anterior part of the dorsal fin. 



Distribution. — ^S'. dactyhptera, previously known as an inhabitant of the 

 Scandinavian and Lusitanian areas, and of the southern Atlantic, has recently 

 become established as a truly British species, without doubt breeding and per- 

 manently residing around the British shores. The first records of its appearance 

 was given by Dr. Giinther in 1889, from specimens taken by the " Flying Fox" 

 at 250 fathoms off the south-west of Ireland. During the Survey, several adults 

 and half-grown specimens were taken off the coasts of Mayo and Kerry at depths 

 of 500, 220, and 154 fathoms, while a great number of young were obtained at 80 

 fathoms, off the Skelligs. Scharff, in examining several specimens taken by the 

 " Lord Bandon " off the south-west of Ireland, was led to the discovery that a 

 number of fish from the same locality, preserved in the Science and Art Museum, 

 and labelled Sehastes norvegicus, belong really to the species now under consideration. 

 It thus appears that S. dactyhptera has been captured off the coast as early as 

 1843, by William Andrews, while the species to which his specimens were referred 

 is actually unknown in Irish waters. 



On the English coast the first recorded example was washed ashore at 

 Coatham Sands in Yorkshire in February, 1893 (Eagle Clarke). In April of the 

 same year a specimen was received by one of us from the Humber Estuary, and 

 the accounts of fishermen gave reason to suppose that others had been taken there 

 about the same time. All these English examples were quite small. About the 

 same time it transpired, as we are informed by Mr. Boulanger, that the species 

 had been regularly taken off Troup Head, Aberdeenshire, where the soundings 

 reach a depth of over 130 fathoms, but had previously been mistaken, as in 

 Ireland, for Sehastes norvegicus. In Norwegian waters the recorded depth is from 

 100 to 300 fathoms, and off Madeira from 250 to 400 fathoms, but the species 

 was taken during the expeditions of the " Travailleur " and " Talisman " at 54 to 

 527 fathoms. It has thus been found almost exclusively in deep, or at least in 

 moderately deep, water, which renders the occurrence of a specimen in less than 

 5 fathoms in the Humber somewhat remarkable. The example found at Coatham 



3N2 



