Gaily Marine Lahoratory^ St. Andrew/^. 155 



the anus in the latter is somewhat behind that usually seen 

 in the adult. Further, each specimen from the Thames has 

 a dark pigment-baud, which is visible after ten years' pre- 

 servation in spirit, on the free edge of the caudal rays, 

 which also showed less of a median indentation than in the 

 St. Andrews specimen. The barbel in the latter is also 

 thicker and slightly shorter, whilst the eye is proportionally 

 larger. Some of tliese differences may be due to the 

 precocity of the southern examples of the same length ; for 

 in the essential structural features the specimen of 77 mm. 

 from St. Andrews pertains to Gadus luscus and diverges 

 from the poor-cod {Gadus minulus). Wliilst young forms 

 of the latter are not uncommon in St. Andrews Bay, in 

 consonance with the prevalence of the adults, the bib is less 

 common, and few or none of 70 mm. have been previously 

 obtained. It appears to be otherwise in regard to the poor- 

 cod in Norwegian waters ; for it is stated in the ' Scandi- 

 navian Fishes ' that neither adults nor fry are ever seen close 

 inshore, nor are they taken by the seine. 



Allusion has often been made to a banded stage in the 

 life-history of the bib. Thus Ur. Giinther* mentions that 

 the bib has cross-bands during life, and with a black axillary 

 spot. Dr. Day f describes them as 5 or 6 broad vertical 

 bands of rather darker colour descending from the back 

 to the lower surface, meeting those of opposite sides. 

 Mr. Couch t and Malm § also allude to the same feature as 

 an occasional occurrence. In the remarks on the bib and 

 the poor-cod in 1888 |i it was stated that the iridescence of 

 the bib resembles that of the bronze- winged pigeon, the pale 

 streaks on the sides occurring in broad blotches between the 

 darker pigment-bands. Yet amongst many young bib cap- 

 tured along with young poor cod, soles, and other forms in 

 the nets of the shrimp-trawlers of the Thames, no banded 

 forms were met with, and some were of the same length as 

 the specimen here dealt with, whilst others were shorter or 

 longer. Similar bands to those described in the examples from 

 St. Andrews (70 mm. in length) occur in another 7| in. long. 

 The first is a band in front of the first dorsal fin and including 

 its anterior third and thence to the pectoral. The second is a 

 broad bar of dark pigment, separated from the former by a 

 pale belt, which extended to the anterior third of the second 

 dorsal. A broad pale band followed, and then a very well- 



* Introd. to Study of Fishes, p. 541. 



t Brit. Fishes, vol. i. p. 287. f Brit. Fishe.3, vol. iii. p. 71. 



§ In the ' Scandinavian Fishes,' i. p. 4^.3. 



II Ann. k Mag. Nat. Hist., Ort. 1888, p. 348. 



II* 



