THE FISHES. 201 



This larva may probably be related to the Stomiatidse, but it reaches a comparatively 

 large size without approaching the characters of any adult fish known to us. It has a 

 superficial resemblance to Paralepls corecjomides, but the abdomen is no longer than 

 the head, wliich is sufficient to eliminate the last-named species and its allies from the 

 list of possible parents. 



" SCORP.ENIFORM " LaRVA. 



In the following hauls : — 



26 c. One of 4 mm. | 34 c. One of 3-5 mm., one of 6-3 mm. 



there occurred a " Scorpseniform " larva which, at a length of 6-3 mm. (without caudal 

 fin), is a massive little fish having the general conformation of an adult Scorpcena ; but 

 as the only specimen of this size is in very bad condition, its true relationships are 

 matter of conjecture. It is certainly not S. dactyloptera. 



Larvae of about 35 and 4 mm., which we think belong to the same form, have the 

 body rather elevated, and adorned, after preservation in formalin, with rvisty-brown 

 pigment along the divisions of the myomeres, except at the anterior and posterior 

 extremities. 



" Triglotd " Larva. 



We have listed as "Trigloid" a much-macerated larva some 4'5 mm. long from 

 haul 36 d, 50-0 fathoms, about 1 a.m., which may, when perfect, have liad characters 

 similar to those of a larval Trigla. 



NOTE TO THE FOllEGOIXG REPORT. 



By G. Herbert Fowler, F.L.S. 



As Messrs. Holt and Byrne point out, the numbers of observed larvae which they were 

 able to furnish are not necessarily to be regarded as absolutely accurate ; for these 

 objects are so delicate that further specimens may have been reduced to mere un- 

 recognizable fragments. Exactly the same reservation has, of course, to be made in all 

 those cases which I have endeavoured to treat statistically in foi'mcr reports. They do 

 not profess to give an absolute, but a compai-ative, result ; a comparison of haul with 

 haul, or of dejith with depth, during the particular period of that cruise, is feasible, 

 because there is no reason to suppose that the destruction of specimens was j)ro- 

 portionately greater at one particular depth than at any other (except in the case of the 

 deep serial hauls, which have always been kept in a different category). 



While, then, no single species was sufficiently plentiful or occurred with sufficient 

 regularity to allow of statistical treatment, there seems to be no reason why the pelagic 

 fish-larv£E as a whole should not be so handled. There were about 230 of these. 



