252 Part II1.—Twenty-third Annual Report 
parent, and its eyes were the only conspicuous part of it, the silvery lustre 
contrasting with the intense black pigment, of which there was also a 
somewhat triangular patch on the upper surface. 
At first it habitually lurked in concealment under the overhanging 
edge of the stone, only its head being visible. On being disturbed its 
first movement was to withdraw the head also, but if the disturbance 
continued, it came out from its lair and swam slowly round the vessel, 
close to the sand, with an undulatory or serpentine movement, stopping 
every now and again and swaying its head to one side or the other as if 
examining the bottom, which it occasionally tapped suddenly with its 
snout. Later, it took up a position on the top of the stone, among the 
weeds, with its body entwined among the stems. 
In the part of the other specimen, examined later after preservation 
in formaline, the depth behind the head was 6mm. and the thickness 
3mm., the diameter of the eye being 15mm. The lower jaw was con- 
spicuously longer than the upper, projecting considerably beyond it; 
minute dots of dusky pigment existed on the tip of the snout, and _ still 
more markedly on and around the tip of the lower jaw, extending 
backwards under it. The tissues had a solid consistence. This speci- 
men thus appears to differ somewhat from the one I described last year. 
THe Ancuovy (Zngraulis encrasicholus). 
In some previous reports I have described the occurrence of the 
anchovy in Scottish waters.* Ou 29th June, last year, a specimen was 
taken in a sparling (or smelt) net, near Creetown, Wigton Bay, and 
was sent by Mr. W. Poole, of that place, to Mr. R. Duthie, the Fishery 
Officer of the district, whom I have to thank for the specimen. Com- 
pared with other Scottish specimens that have come into my hands, it 
is unusually large. The end of the tail is damaged, and its length, as it 
is, is 178mm., or 7 inches, but when perfect it probably measured about 
184mm. According to Day, the anchovy rarely exceeds 64 inches, but 
he mentions that Dunn has obtained specimens off the Cornish coast 
measuring eight inches in length. 
THe Catrisu (Anarrhichas lupus). 
The spawning period of this fish has not yet been well determined; 
it may therefore be worth while recording that on 6th August last, 
among a number which were caught by a trawler in 49 fathoms, six 
miles north-west of Foula Island, which lies to the westwards of the 
Shetlands, some of the females had the eggs well advanced. The fish 
were opened by Captain Samuel Caie and the eggs were sent in bottles to 
the Marine Laboratory. In three cases the eggs measured from 3mm. 
to 4mm. and were obviously immature, but in one instance they were 
fully mature, measuring 6mm., and they were isolated and separate, and 
apparently ready for extrusion. 
M‘Intosh and Masterman * are probably right in supposing that the 
main spawning time of this fish is from November to January, with a 
margin on either side; but the existence of a fully ripe female at the 
beginning of August shows that spawning may begin much earlier than 
November. 
An ALBINO PLAICE. 
I am indebted to Mr. James Robb for a specimen of an albino plaice 
* Kighth Annual Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland, Part III., p. 351 ; 
Twentieth, ibid., p. 539 
+ British Marine Food Fishes, p. 201. 
