St. Andreios Marine Laboratory. 99 



obtained it frequently from trawlers working on the so-called 

 " witch "-ground of the Moray Firth, and has written an 

 interesting account of its habits, food, and distribution. 

 Mr. Thomas Scott, Naturalist to the Fishery Board for 

 Scotland, has also met with various examples otF the Firth of 

 Forth. The species therefore is probably an inhabitant of 

 the deeper water all along the eastern coast of Scotland. 

 Dr. Giinther *, again, records it from the west coast of 

 Scotland, but he overlooks the original description of it as a 

 British fish by Dr. Day. Mr. Sim seems to think that it is 

 fossorial, but no certainty exists, though allied forms have this 

 habit. 



Collett states that h. lampetnvformis is known to occur on 

 the coast of Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen, and the shores 

 of North-western Europe as far south as the Cattegat. But 

 few examples of the species have been hitherto obtained from 

 Greenland and Iceland. Off Spitzbergen, however, it has 

 been repeatedly observed, individuals having been taken on 

 each of the Swedish expeditions to the Polar Sea, and its 

 range extends as far north as 80°. Along the coast of 

 Norway, from Finmark to the Christiania Fjord, it would 

 appear to be rather a common fish, and he mentions having 

 taken a dozen at a single iiaul of a net in the Porsanger 

 Fjord, West Finmark. 



Two other species of the genus, viz. L. medius and L. maca- 

 latiis, occur in northern waters, the former from Greenland 

 and Spitzbergen, the latter from the same region as well as 

 the shores of Norway and the eastern coast of North America. 

 In L. maculatus the anterior part of the dorsal is somewhat 

 differentiated, being furnished with short sharp spines and 

 only a trace of tin- membrane. 



5. On Rhombus (Zeugopterus) norvegicus, Giinther. 



A fine example of this comparatively rare form came from 

 the same region as the preceding specimen, viz. south-east of 

 the Carr lightship, on the 6th April, 1894. 



The species was first described and figured as British by 

 Mr. Couch t under the name of Ehombus cordina, Guv., or 

 Ekstrom's topknot, from a specimen obtained in the Bristol 

 Channel in 1863. Dr. Giinther, who pointed out the distuic- 

 tion of the British form procured off Shetland, and also that 

 of Fries and Ekstrom, from the Fleuronectes cordina of (^Juvier, 

 it the name of Ehombus norvegicus J. No additional 

 * Proc. Eoy. Soc. Ediub. vol. xv. p. 211. 

 t ' Fislie:^,' vol. iii. p. 175, pi. clxvii. 

 1 Oat. Fishes, iv. p. 412. 



7* 



