SOME FISH NOTES 311 



did not long remain unnoticed by customers, and its "re- 

 mainders " were sold at night in a fried condition, with many 

 another species. 



THE VIPER WEEVER 



During the summer and autumn of 1906 the numbers of 

 the lesser weever (Trachurus vipera) taken in draw-nets and 

 trawls, both on the coast and on Breydon, were in excess of 

 those of any year I can remember. It may be that this 

 phenomenally fine and warm period accounted for their 

 abundance, as it undoubtedly did for the vast numbers of 

 herring-syle then found present in local waters. I have 

 heard several persons speak of the painful consequences of 

 contact with its ugly dorsal fin, although I have only known 

 one or two seriously injured by it. No mercy is ever shown 

 it on capture. 



I had never satisfactorily understood why the spines of 

 this fish should be poisonous, and in certain instances I had 

 concluded that there was a probability of the fish having 

 come in contact with decaying animal matter owing to its 

 habit of grovelling on the sea-floor. But at a meeting of 

 the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists in November, 1906, 

 some interesting information on this point was forthcoming. 

 Dr. H. Muir Evans, of Lowestoft, sent in a short paper on 

 " Weever Sting, or Trachinus Venom " ; and Mr. J. O. 

 Barley, M.A., gave an account of the structure of the poison 

 apparatus of the weever. The following is a condensed 

 notice of these two communications, which were of more 

 than local interest : 



" There are two British species of weever, Trachinus draco, 

 the greater weever, and Trachinus vipera, the less. The 

 poison apparatus in both is the same. In each it consists of 

 poison glands, resembling sebaceous glands, in relation with 

 grooved spines. These spines are : (i) Those of the dorsal 

 fin, which is coloured black, probably as a ' warning' to 

 other fish to prevent them biting. This fin, as the creature 

 lies buried in the sand, is seen alone. (2) The opercular 

 spine is more interesting. It has the form of a dagger, 

 grooved along each edge, each groove containing a pear- 

 shaped gland. The secreting cells of each gland are very 



