Prof. F. J. Bell on Bntish OpMurids. 343 



is in the Stockholm Museum, and that it is an example of the 

 A. verrucosuvi of Lamarck. 



By writers on the British fauna the specific names arho- 

 rescens, capui-medusce, and scutatum have been used respec- 

 tively by Pennant, Turton, Fleming and Coucii ; but in no 

 one case is it possible to say with certainty whether or no 

 they are speaking of the " Shetland Argus." 



I cainiot, I fear, pretend to the skill in divining intentions 

 which is sometimes so marked a gift of the synonymist. 

 Pennant, for example, gives nothing that to-day we can call 

 a specific character ; his reference to Linneeus's caput-meduscB 

 is of no help. Pontoppidan is as entertaining as ever, but it 

 is impossible to be sure what his species was. 



Turton seemed to be more promising with his reference to 

 Barbut and Sliaw ; the latter (Miscell. pi. ciii.) seems to have 

 given his artist a Mediterranean form, while Barbut's figure 

 (pi. X. fig. 12) is not as good as most of his. 



In fine, the first description recognizable by me is that of 

 Edward Forbes ; and I venture to submit that no earlier 

 description can with any confidence be said to apply to what 

 we know as the " Shetland Argus." 



It may perhaps be urged that, as there is only one British 

 species of the genus, it is a refinement of exactness to pretend 

 to be in ignorance of what these authors meant ; but the 

 premiss is not founded on fact, first because Gorgonocephalus 

 eucnemis has been dredged by the ' Triton ' in the Faroe 

 Channel at a depth of 433 fathoms, and because of the geo- 

 graphical distribution ascribed to the "Shetland Argus"; 

 this is a most important point — when a species is found in 

 Norway, at Shetland, and the Orkneys it very often happens 

 that it is not found further south otherwise than as a deep-sea 

 form or as on.e of very extensive range. I cannot recall any 

 species which is certainly known from Shetland and from 

 Cornwall and not any intermediate station. The chances are 

 that the Shetland form is a northern, the Cornwall a more 

 southern or even Mediterranean form. The very distribution 

 therefore leads one to suppose that two species have been 

 found in the British seas *. 



The difficulties that beset the student of English authorities 

 are, with the exception of Lamarck, who appears to make, 



* I should like to point out that, although we are not in science bound 

 by such laws of evidence as brought rebuke on Sam AVeller for repeating 

 what the soldier said, yet the repeated citation of Borlaso as the authority 

 for Cornwall rests not on any statement in his own works, but on the 

 remark of Pennant, " The late worthy Dr. William Borlase informed me 

 that it had been taken off Cornwall." 



