74 Part I1T.— Twenty-first Annual Report 
THE PoccGE or ARMED-BULLHEAD (Agonus cataphractus). 
Notwithstanding its small size specimens of this species were 
occasionally taken in the otter-trawl, their capture being doubtless 
facilitated by their form. Forty-six were taken by the ordinary net 
in the Moray Firth in January, June, July, October, November, and 
December, at Burghead Bay, in the Dornoch Firth, near Smith Bank, 
and particnlarly off the coast of Caithness. It was also got in 
Aberdeen Bay in January, June, September, October, November, and 
December. It was most common in the winter months; of 123 
specimens seventeen were taken in October, forty-three in November, 
twenty in December, and thirty-one in January. With regard to its 
bathymetrical distribution, while it is abundant in sandy shallows, as 
in the Solway and in estuaries,* it is sometimes found in deeper water 
than is generally supposed, In Aberdeen Bay and the Moray Firth 
the common range of depth in which the hauls were made was from 
seven to twelve or fifteen fathoms, Off Dunbeath and Lybster, 
Caithness, it was taken in many hauls in from twenty-two to twenty- 
seven fathoms, five hauls, with the ordinary net yielding seventeen 
specimens. One was taken near Smith Bank in 314 fathoms in June. 
In the depression off Aberdeen known as the Dog Hole specimens were 
occasionally taken in the small-meshed net. One was got in 58 fathoms 
in August, another in seventy fathoms, 122 miles from shore, in 
November ; another in sixty-eight fathoms, also in November ; another 
in fifty-seven fathoms in December, and two in fifty-seven fathoms 
in January. One 104 mm, in length was taken in May twenty-two 
miles east of Flugga, at the north of the Shetlands, in eighty-five 
fathoms. During the trawling investigations of the “Garland” in the 
Moray Firth twenty-eight specimens were caught in 308 hauls, and 
all except five were obtained at the outer stations in moderately deep 
water, 
They were on the other hand found to be very abundant sometimes 
in the shrimp-net in the Solway Firth, and were occasionally also 
taken in the push-net on the beach in Loch Fyne and Aberdeen Bay. 
A considerable number were examined and measured in order to deter- 
mine the proportions in number and size of the sexes, the rate of growth, 
the size when maturity is reached, and the period of spawning. Setting 
aside a few lots in which the sexes were not completely separated 
throughout, the result shows 467 females and 398 males, the average 
size being 88:0 mm. for the females and 86-1 mm. for the males. The 
excess of females is considerable, that sex amounting to fifty-four per 
cent. of the total, and the males to nearly forty-six per cent.; but in 
several cases, as in November and March, males were in excess. The 
greatest disproportion was in October, when 118 females and 74 males 
were taken, and in December, when the females numbered 127 and the 
males 90. It is an exception to what appears to be a general rule that 
in fishes with demersal eggs the males are most numerous. The mean 
lengths—taking all sizes together—differ very little, viz. by 1:9 mm. 
With regard to the period of reproduction, in a number examined on 
August Ist one large female 142 mm. (43 inches) long had a few large 
ripe eggs, but the majority were small, as was the case in the other 
specimens. On 27th September the eggs were small; in a female of 
90 mm. the largest measured 0:3 mm. ; one at 56 mm. had eggs up to 
nearly 0:1 mm., and in a female of 53 mm. the largest measured 
* On one occasion a specimen from the Firth of Forth which I placed in fresh water 
lived in it for eighteen hours, Vide Ninth Ann. Rep., Part III., p. 250. 
