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



Our own observations, therefore, so far from bridging over the discrepancy, 

 tend rather to its further illustration. So few females of A. lophotes are available 

 that we cannot say whether the comparative lowness of the formula in those 

 examined possesses any significance. It is true that among the A. laterna examined, 

 the maximum of dorsal rays is exhibited by a male (Specimen G), but the same is 

 also true of the minimum (Specimen 0), and we are quite unable to state, from the 

 material at our disposal, that there is any constant sexual difference in the number 

 of rays in the smaller forms. 



The formula, compiled after the assumption of specific identity in all the 

 examples cited, is D. 84—102, A. 64—81. This involves a variation, perhaps, more 

 considerable than has been demonstrated in the case of any other single species 

 having approximately the same number of rays, but we do not think that it is by 

 any means so excessive as to preclude the possibility of the existence of only one 

 species. It so happens that less than 87 dorsal rays are only met with in the case 

 of one of the Norwegian examples. Variation of the fin-ray formula, as of other 

 characters, in relation to locality, would be in no way surprising; but CoUett, who 

 has studied the matter in the case of Hippoglossoides platessoides* found that it was 

 the most northern examples that possessed the most numerous rays, and not the 

 most southern, as in the present instance. 



It should not be forgotten that scaldfish almost invariably arrive on deck in an 

 extremely frayed condition. Some of our specimens are, indeed, so much injured 

 that, as will be noticed in the Table, we have not attempted an exact definition of 

 their formulae; and if we admit that in the case of some other small specimens we 

 may have failed to detect the defection of some few rays that were lost in capture, 

 we do not believe that this will be held, by those who have had experience of the 

 species, to be tantamount to a confession of general incompetence of observation. 

 If such has been the case, it is quite possible that the natural condition involves 

 no material discrepancy between the forms exhibiting, respectively, the character 

 of A. lophotes and A. laterna ; but it must be noted that Specimen Q, the most 

 perfect of the whole series, has certainly a formula of only D. 92, A. 68. 



The scales in the specimens forming our series are so imperfect that they can 

 only be counted, with any approach to accuracy, in four. It is noticeable, how- 

 ever, that the scales of the male A. lophotes have the posterior margins rather more 

 angular than in the female and in the smaller specimens {^A. laterna). There is a 

 difficulty in counting the number of rows which cross the lateral line in any 

 example, as the rows crossing the anterior curved portion of this structure are so 

 irregular that the defection of a few scales causes great confusion. It seems, 

 therefore, preferable to enumerate the rows which cross a straight line formed by 



* "Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition," p. 144. 



