646 



Frits Johansen. 



often catch sight of this fish, lying quite still and luring on its 

 booty (it likes especially to conceal itself in the loose sea-weed; see 

 Introduction); they move about lazily when the shadow of the boat 

 reaches them and only swim away more energetically when stirred 

 up with a boat-hook. Both the older and younger specimens occur 

 here, and even the pelagic stages (which in the case of most other 

 fishes are found in greater depths) are taken right into the beach 

 in Danmarks Havn, where they swim about actively at the surface 

 by means of their large pectorals and movements of the tail. Like 

 С scorpius this fish is caught in the freshened water at Hvalros- 

 odden; in winter the thickness of the fjord-ice probably forces it 

 out into a little deeper water (Laminaria region). All the specimens 

 taken are from the harbour and neighbouring waters, July and 

 August 1907 (everywhere soft bottom). About 20 specimens in 

 all were taken, which in regard to size and sex were as follows: 

 Ç 275, 270, 263, 260, 190, 170, 133, 121 mm 



c? 205, 192, 168, 165, 155, 155, 145, 137, 128, 121 — 



Of these most had large eggs or well-developed testes (blue- 

 gray); the males already at ca. 150 mm, the females on the other 

 hand only at ca. 250 mm (the largest eggs in the ovary vere 1^/2 mm 

 in diameter, the smallest V2 mm). The stomachs contained chiefly 

 the common, littoral Amphipods, furtlier a few Mysis oculaia and 

 some parasitic Cestodes. 



Of the tiny larvae mentioned above, 3 were taken close to the 

 beach in Danmarks Havn 24 — 7 — 07 and measured 19 — 20 mm; 

 2 others were caught the following year (19 — 7 — 08) at the same 

 place and measured the same, but were older in development. They 

 represent a hitherto unknown stage between larvae of ca. 13 mm, 

 hatched out by Sundevall in the large Swedish lakes and des- 

 cribed by him\ and the larvae of 215 mm mentioned by Ad. S. 

 Jensen from East Greenland'^, and they may therefore be described 

 here in more detail (see PI. XLVI, figs. 11 — 13). They were taken 

 in quite shallow water (1 m) and the bottom consisted of mud- 

 covered rocks ("Skærver"); of the 3 taken in 1907 I succeeded in 

 keeping one alive in salt water for a whole day, although the gut 

 had not yet broken through at the anus and it took no food. To 

 begin with, it swam about actively in the glass, but when half the 

 day had passed it lay mostly on the bottom and only came up to 

 the surface now and then (though I changed the water and placed 

 a little food in it). The other two larvae were preserved immediately 

 after capture, as also the two from 1908. But unfortunately they 



1 Kgl. Vetensk. Akadem. Handl. Bd. I, PI. I, figs. 5—8. Stockholm 1855. 



2 1. с p. 237. 



