490 Survey of Fishing-Grounds, West Coast of Ireland, 1890—1891. 



To put the matter very briefly, he found that the elongation of the fin-rays, 

 the large size of the eye, and the comparative shortness of the upper jaw {i.e. the 

 most important characteristic of A. lophotes) were confined to male fish of over 

 13.2 cm. in total length, that in adult females the anterior rays were very slightly 

 elongated, but that no such differences existed in examples of either sex less than 

 13.2 cm. long. 



Taking these facts into consideration the author concluded that A, laterna was 

 a sexually dimorphic form, of which examples hitherto classified as A. lophotes 

 were simply full-grown males. 



The greatest difficulty in the acceptance of this conclusion, and one which was 

 present in the author's mind [vide p. 542), is found in the possibility of the 

 existence of one species, in which the males and females are dimorphic, and of 

 another smaller species which exhibits no dimorphism at all. Against this possi- 

 bility the author seeks to guard by the assertion that, apart from the characters 

 already discussed, all his specimens agreed with the descriptions given by previous 

 writers of the species A. laterna, while the considerable and partial elongation of 

 the fin-rays were confined, respectively, to males and females above a certain size. 

 It may be permissible to suggest that the conclusion would have carried more 

 universal conviction had it been supported by the enumeration of the proportions, 

 &c., of a considerable series of both sexes at different sizes ; this more especially 

 since there is a discrepancy, in the fin-ray formulas, which the author appears to 

 have overlooked. On this account it appeared to us that any additional light, which 

 a careful examination of the Survey scaldfish could throw on the matter, would be 

 welcome ; and, at the request of Dr. Giinther, we have included in our investigation 

 a small series of Norwegian examples. 



A considerable number of scaldfish, all of the A. laterna type, were taken 

 during the Survey, and about forty of these, ranging in size from 4*1 to 13 cm., 

 were preserved. To Mr. A. R. C. Newburgh, of Bantry, we are indebted for four 

 specimens of the A. lophotes tyj)e* trawled by him on the S.W. of Ireland. The 

 list of British examples is completed by a single A. laterna from the coast of 

 Yorkshire, while the Norwegian examples, conforming to the same type, are five 

 in number. 



As is usual in the case of scaldfish, a great part of our material was con- 

 siderably injured, the scales or skin being partly or wholly wanting, and the fins 

 more or less frayed and broken, but there remain a sufficient number of specimens 

 of which the preservation, if far from perfect, is at all events, adequate for the 

 purpose. 



We append a list of the specimens selected for examination, with a Table of 

 those proportions which are of chief importance in the present connection. 



* Viz. three males with fully elongated rays, and a female with rays only slightly elongated. 



