192 Prof. M'Intosh's Notes from the 



dotted round the anus. A few pigment-specks occur inside 

 the abdominal cavity, as viewed from the ventral surface. 



The thickness and elongation of the body suggest its 

 relationship with the halibut, and it certainly contrasts 

 strongly with young turbot, somewhat less in size, which were 

 kindly sent for examination by Mr. Holt. 



Specimens of very small halibut are extremely rare, 

 apparently because they are found only in deep water near 

 the great fishing-grounds, and because their mouths are too 

 small to take the large hook used for the capture of the 

 species. It is otherwise as soon as it exceeds a foot in length. 

 The smallest examples hitherto examined at St. Andrews 

 were obtained by a local trawler, the larger being a foot and 

 the smaller a little less. On the 31st May, 1892, however, 

 a specimen measuring 97 millim., or a little more than 3f 

 inches, was procured at a depth of 105 fathoms about 80 miles 

 from the coast of Norway, and about 220 miles from Aberdeen. 

 It had been swallowed by a green cod. Its fin-formula is 

 D. 97, A. 73 (?), caudal 19, pectoral 11, ventral 6, though it 

 must be stated that digestion had considerably affected the 

 fins. 



The differences between this small example and that a foot 

 long are the proportionally larger size of the eyes and their 

 proximity to the anterior border of the snout, the smallness 

 of the gape (the posterior angle of the mouth being some- 

 what in front of the eye, whereas in the larger it passes to 

 the anterior fifth of the eye), and the maxilla is boldly marked. 

 The arch of the lateral line behind the eye on the right is 

 much more pronounced in the larger example, for in the 

 smaller it is gently bent upward, and runs forward with a 

 very slight declivity. On the left side the arch is more dis- 

 tinctly curved. Variations, however, are frequent in the larger 

 examples. The caudal rays proceed from a nearly vertical 

 line in the smaller, from a semicircle («. e. a line convex 

 backward) in the larger specimen. The opercular region also 

 differs, but the gastric juice has affected the small example. 

 The thickness and narrowness of the body are more or less 

 diagnostic at this stage, which, if it pertains to the halibut, is 

 probably about a year old. 



2. On the Ova and Larvai o/Gadus minutus. 



The eggs and larva? of this species were briefly alluded to 

 by Raffaele*, who stated that the arrangement of the pig- 

 ment differed from that in the cod. Marion f likewise found 



* Mitth. zoolog. Stat, Neap. Bd. viii. Heft 1, sep. Abth. p. 36, Taf. 1. 

 fig. 25, and Taf. 2. figs. 20, 21 (1888). 



t Ann. du Musee d'Hist. Nat. de Marseille, Zool. iv. p. 178, pi. 2. 

 fiff. 14. 



