188 Part I11.— Twenty-first Annual Report 
time, but in my notes it is described as richly speckled and mottled, and 
my impression is that the mottling was mostly brown and green. In the 
preserved condition (formaline) it is darkish grey above, with a few dozen 
blackish, somewhat ccellated, spots, scattered about, and numerous less 
dark brownish patches with a digitate border like the marginal fringes. 
The terminal portion of all the fins is black, most marked in the mem- 
brane between the rays, aud on the dorsal and terminal third of the lower 
surface of the pectorals. It is soft and gelatinous and the muccid tissue 
abounds, especially on the under surface of the head. The fish weighed 
14 ounces. 
The following measurements are from the preserved specimen. 
Extreme length, 124 mm. ; length behind anus, 57 mm. ; and from anus 
to root of caudal, 32 mm. Greatest breadth of head, 48 mm. ; greatest 
height, 20 mm. ; diameter of eye, 6 mm.; distance between eyes, 12 mm. ; 
distance from tip of snout to base of third dorsal ray, 28 mm.; gape with 
mouth closed, 30 mm.; projection of lower jaw beyond snout, 7 mm. ; 
width behind pectorals, 20 mm. Length of free portion of first dorsal 
ray, 6 mm.; of second, 17 mm; of third, 14 mm. Length of pectoral, 
30 mm.; breadth expanded, 28 mm.; length of ventrals, 23 mm.; 
breadth, 9 mm. 
The first dorsal spine is destitute of lateral appendages or fringes, but 
bears on the top a dark grey membranous horizontal straight strip, 5 mm. 
long, and nearly 2 mm. in vertical breadth, poised in the middle on the 
apex. It thus resembles a T. The strip is bluntly pointed at each end, 
and provided below with a number of lighter-coloured, hair-like filaments 
about 2mm. long. The spine arises about 5 mm. from the snout, and in 
examining it in water I was struck with the resemblance the terminal 
portion presented to a small crustacean, as an amphipod, the pendulous 
filaments representing the legs. If the angler sways the spine about in 
the water, one can understand how small fishes may be deceived and snap 
at it. 
The second and third spines are feathered laterally with membranous 
fragments, the third most densely, and they are here darker; and similar 
appendages exist on the free portions of the other three spines, the free 
portion of the fourth spine measuring 10 mm. 
In Aberdeen Bay, among 131 anglers measured, six were under 200 
mm., one was 159 (63 inches), and the others from 187 to 198 mm. 
Three, including the smallest, were taken in November, two in from 
seven to twenty fathoms, and the smallest in fifteen-and-a-half fathoms, 
one in May and two in July. At the Dog Hole off Aberdeen, where the 
water is deep, one of eighteen measured 170 mm.; it was caught on 
13th May. 
The proportion of the young anglers on the deep-water grounds 
appears to be higher than on the inshore trawling grounds. Of fifty in 
May, in sixty-five fathoms, ten were under 200 mm., ranging from 155 
to 197, the average length being 18271 mm., or 7,3, inches. In 
September, seven of twenty-two were under 200 mm., the size ranging 
irom i165 to 191 mm., and the average length being 181°3 mm., or 7} 
inches. Other two under 200 mm. were taken in the Forth in July 
measuring 165 and 196 mm. respectively. The higher proportion in the 
deep water may indicate the comparative absence of shelter there, and it 
shows in all probability that spawning and the developmental changes 
may take place far from land. 
The larger anglers are as a rule got in deeper water than those which 
are of moderate size, as, for example, in thirty and fifty fathoms in the 
Moray Firth. They sometimes, however, come into quite shallow water. 
An interesting case of the kind occurred in June in the Dornoch Firth. 
