

the Herring-king. 177 



northern Bandfish were much more limited and defective ; 

 but they have nevertheless sufficed to answer, at least provi- 

 sionally, more than one question relating to it; for with 

 regard to both these comparative rarities in our museums there 



were, and indeed still are, many such remaining to be 

 settled. 



Thus, with regard to the Vaagmser, it still required to be 



settled whether our northern Vaagmser (or our northern 



Vaagmsers, in case there should be more than one species) is 



or is not distinct from the forms observed elsewhere, especially 



i in the Mediterranean or in the neighbouring part of the 



Atlantic. The question has certainly always been answered 

 in the negative, but yet could not be regarded as perfectly 

 settled so long as comparisons had been instituted only upon 

 scanty materials and not between individuals of tolerably 

 corresponding age and size ; and that a pelagic form like the 

 Vaagmser was not confined to the northern seas alone (where 

 it is known from Iceland and the northernmost part of Nor- 

 way to the Fseroes, Skagen, Norfolk, and Donegal, but not 

 from the western, American side of the northern sea), seemed 

 in itself not to be improbable. The question has lately been 

 much simplified by the investigations which have been made 

 upon the changes of form with age, or the developmental 

 history, of the Mediterranean forms. Moreover our museum 

 possesses some materials towards the recognition of the con- 

 nexion between the age-forms formerly established and de- 

 scribed as distinct species and under different specific names j 

 but I was freed from the necessity of devoting to them a 



discussion, which must have been very incomplete, in my 

 t o„_i_._ a., .. .:._ i i_ a ance ^ in 1880 ^ of E nnei y 3 



* d. R,. Accad. dei Lincei), 

 founded upon much more copious materials. Referring here 

 to this, or to the exposition which I have given (loc. cit.), from 

 this source and from my own materials, of the history of the 

 transformations of the Mediterranean species [Trachypterus 

 iris j Wb.), I confine myself to indicating that the reduction 

 of the species can hardly be restricted to declaring T.filicauda 

 (16-32 millim.), Spinolce (2£-3f inches), iris and taenia (up 

 to 2 feet) to form only a single species ; we may unite with 

 them without hesitation T. liopterus, C.& V. (about 4 feet), and 

 T 9 Eiippeliy Gunth. (about the same size), and perhaps also 

 To gryphurus, Lowe ; and it may in general be a question 

 whether we know more than this one species from the Mediter- 

 ranean and the neighbouring part of the Atlantic. That this 

 is specifically distinct from T. drcticus, Bn., there can be no 

 doubt, although it is difficult to indicate any but purely 



1 Spolia Atlantica/ by the appearan 



" Contribuzioni all' Ittiologia" (Atti 



