Gatty Marine Laboratory, St. Andrews. 527 



Such an interpretation is very interesting, but it was not that 

 which suggested itself in former years. A re-examination of 

 the St. Andrews example shows that no trace of regeneration 

 occurs superficially in the fairly normal right or coloured 

 side ; that the vertebral column runs normally to the base of 

 the tail ; and that no irregularity is visible from the hypural 

 elements forward for more than twenty vertebrae, the skeleton 

 being the same as in other examples, except that a slight 

 dorsal curve is visible a little in front of the fin-frill, an 

 indication, perhaps, of the peculiarity in constitution (dys- 

 crasia) which may be associated with the abnormal fin. 

 Moreover, the condition on the left side is explicable without 

 calling in the loss of the tail in the early condition. The 

 precaudal fin-frill may be a simple abnormality arising from 

 hypertrophy or a hereditary tendency to excess of fin-growth 

 — akin, for instance, to polydactylism or the extra fins of 

 the golden carp. 



3. On Orthagoriscus mola, Bl. 



This fish is occasionally found in the neighbourhood of 

 St. Andrews Bay, especially in the month of the Forth, where 

 a small example appeared off Crail on the 9th October, 1908. 

 Such a small form shows the greenish-blue silvery lustre 

 quite as much as the larger. This example had a length of 

 23 inches and a depth of 14^, whilst across the dorsal and 

 anal fins it measured 32^ inches. The dorsal fin was 9f inches 

 long and the anal 9j inches. Like other examples it was 

 swimming leisurely at the surface of the water with the 

 dorsal fin projecting. The stomach was empty and the 

 intestine contained glairy mucus amongst which were several 

 parasites. 



Though the examples captured off the shores of Fife do not 

 reach the gigantic size of that shown in the London Fisheries 

 Exhibition of 1883 *, and which measured 12 feet from the 

 tip of the dorsal to that of the anal and 8 feet in length of 

 body, yet some caught in the Forth and in St. Andrews Bay 

 are of considerable size. Thus Day f records one from 

 Tittenween 8 feet across the fins, a body 4 feet long, and it is 

 interesting that they have generally been caught in October 

 or November. Tims one caught on the 4th of October, 1862, 

 in St. Andrews Bay measured 4 ft. 8 in. across the fins, and, 

 in addition to the points indicated in the f Fauna of St. An- 

 drews ' J, and quoted by Day, it may be mentioned that its 



Scandinavian Fishes,' Fries, Ekstrom, Sundevall, and Wright, ii. 

 pp. 626 et seq. 

 f J 5iit. Fishes, ii. ]>. 275. f P. I*:;. 



