152 Mr. F. Day on the Bih and Poor- Cod. 



fish was classed as Gadus luscus, p. 1 163, and the latter as 

 G. mimttus, p. 1164. The Rev. Mr. Jago, of Cornwall, ob- 

 served, in his ' Catalogus quorundara piscium rariorura ' of 

 Cornwall, that he had discovered a new form of British 

 Gadoid in the poor-cod ; and in this appendix, published in 

 Ray's ' Synopsis Piscium,' 1713, p. 163, we find " Asellus 

 mollis minimus, Cornuh. Poor vel Power dictus, fig. 6," 

 and Ray remarked on its being already described in Wil- 

 lughby. If Jago's figure is referred to, it will be seen that 

 he correctly placed the vent in a perpendicular line beneath 

 the last ray of the first dorsal fin, which, as I shall presently 

 show, is a proof that he certainly diagnosed the species. 



Pennant, in his ' British Zoology,' vol. iii. 1776, 

 pp. 183 and 184, also separated the two, and figured them as 

 distinct on plate xxx. He referred the bib to Asellus luscus, 

 Raii, * Synop. Piscium,' p. 54, or Gadus luscus, Linn. Syst. 

 Nat. p. 437, and the poor-cod to Jago's figure in Ray, or 

 G. jninutus, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 438. Shaw likewise con- 

 sidered the two forms distinct species ; as did also Turton, 

 'British Fauna,' 1807, p. 90; Fleming, ' British Animals,' 

 1828, p. 191 ; and Jenyns in his ' British Vertebrate Animals,' 

 1835, pp. 442, 444. The last of the foregoing authors re- 

 marked : " first noticed as a British species by Jago, who 

 obtained it on the Cornish coast, where it has since been ob- 

 served by Mr. Couch." He then continued that he (Mr. 

 Jenyns) had described his fish from a Weymouth example of 

 the unusual length of 8 inches. In the bib he found the 

 " vent directly beneath the commencement of the first dorsal," 

 whereas in the poor-cod it was " in a line with the tenth ray 

 of the first dorsal fin." 



Yarrell (' British Fishes,' ed. 1836) gave these two forms 

 as two species (vol. ii. pp. 157, 161), and correctly showed 

 the position of the vent. He did not appear to have any 

 doubt as to their distinctness, and no alteration was made in 

 the subsequent editions of his work, which point out that by 

 the situation of the vent and fins the two species may be 

 readily diagnosed. Thompson, in 1837, observed, at a meeting 

 of the Zoological Society, that among the new species of fishes 

 he had obtained in Ireland was Gadus minutus, Linn., the 

 poor-cod, and that from three localities in Down and Antrim ; 

 also that two specimens from the coast of Cork were in the 

 collection of Mr. Ball (Proc. ZooL Soc. 1837, p. 57) ; and 

 in Thompson's ' Natural History of Ireland,' iv. p. 181, the 

 foregoing opinion was retained, and further details of the 

 various specimens added. In White's ' Catalogue of British 

 Fish,' 1851, pp. 88 and 89, they were kept distinct, and also 

 in Giinther's ' Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum,' 



