R. COLLETT. M.-N. Kl. 



On the other hand the head is, certainly, comparatively larger in 

 L. rossi than in L. gracilis, which will be seen from a comparison 

 of all the youngest individuals to hand. 



L. rossi. Total length 32 mm.; length of head 8 mm. (.4.00) Ty/>e. 

 L. gracilis. — 43 » — 9 » (4 77) Type. 



— — 47 " — 9 » (5-22). 



■ — — 60 > — 12 » (5.00) 



It thus may be possible that the greater length of head is not exclu- 

 sively ascribable to the excessively young age of the fish, as the same 

 feature is observable also in the form which possibly represents the 

 more advanced stadium of L. rossi, viz., L. pallidas. 



Up to the present L. rossi has not been again met with in the 

 locality where it was first found; and so far as is known this species 

 has not been mentioned under the above name by subsequent authors, 

 except as a doubtful synonym under L. reticutaliis^. 



A unbroken series between this type specimen and other Lycodes 

 from those waters has thus, as yet, not been obtained. 



3. L. pallidus. This species was described by the Author in 

 1878, from the materials procured by the Norwegian North- Atlantic 

 Expedition which contained two specimens, caught in August 1878, in 

 Spitzbergen waters at depths ranging to 459 fathoms. 



The larger individual was a male (with well-developed testicles), of 

 a total length of 164 mm. In both, the colouring was pale greyish 

 yellow; the body of the larger specimen had no distinct markings, but 

 a row of brownish black patches were visible on the hinder portion of 

 the dorsal. The younger specimen (total length 93 mm.) was more 

 deeply coloured, and had a row of dark shadings, like indications of 

 broad bands down the body, and very distinct black band-like spots 

 on the hinder portion of the dorsal. In the foremost parts of the dorsal 

 the patches were indistinct, but, nevertheless, visible (especially the front 

 ones). 



In its dentition, number of rays in the pectoral, scale-covering, and 

 in the course of the lateral line. L. pallidus (which in 1878. when 

 the species was discovered, could not be assigned to any then described 

 form) is, mainly, like L. gracilis. 



On the other hand, the length of the head is, throughout, less 

 in L. gracilis than in the two type specimens of L. pallidus in the 



1 Collett. Forh. Viil. Sclsk. Cliria. 1878. No. 14. p. 63 (1S78): Collett, Den Norske 

 Nordsliavs-Expcdilion 1876—78, I. Zoologi, Fiske, p. 107 (1880). Smitt, Scandin. Fiskar, 

 2 L'ppl. p. 611 — 612, (Stockli. 189s). 



