446 



REPORT 1867. 



Family Nummulinida. 



Appendix to the Fourth Report on Dredrjinf/ among the Shetland Isles. Addi- 

 tions to the British Fauna. Bij Dr. Albert GiiNTnEK, F.E.S. 



Althoitgh we are very ■well acquainted with the mariue fishes inhabiting the 

 shores of Great Britain and Ireland, our knowledge of the pelagic and deep- 

 sea forms is extremely scanty. Of the Dealfish {Trachypterus arcticus), a 

 fish by no means uncommon in the northern and eastern seas of Scotland, I 

 have never seen a British example in a good state of preservation. 'Nov; and 

 then, after the gales of the vernal equinox, a mutilated specimen of the 

 Pdbbonflsh (Eec/alerus Banlcsii) is drifted ashore, rarely to fall into the 

 hands of a naturalist, generally to be cut up as bait for the lobster-pot. 

 The British species oi LeptocephaJusis not bettor known than the allied forms 

 from the Mediterranean and tropical seas. Others, like Centrolopihus, are 

 known from single examples only. Their development, as well as that of 

 many of the more common forms which spawn in the open or deep sea, is 

 perfectly unknown. 



In seeking information concerning this part of the British fauna, we are 

 not hunting after a shadow: there is evidence enough to show that the 

 depths of the British seas are inhabited by a fish-fauna very different from 

 that of the coasts, and that this fauna is composed of two elements — first, of 

 those which may be regarded as inchgenous, and, secondly, of such forms as 

 are frequently, perhaps constantly, carried by currents from more southern 

 parts of the Atlantic northwards, even to the coasts of Norway {Antennarius, 

 Batrachvs, Ben/x) — not to mention tho.se fishes which by their strong power 

 of swimming are enabled to reach our shores in their migrations, as Ausonia. 

 The causes of our incomplete knowledge of these fi.shes are evident : zoo- 

 loo-ists were either not aware of the existence of such a fauna, or satisfied 

 with the stray specimens thrown in their way by accident; while the diffi- 

 culties surrounding the examination of the deep-sea fishes are so great as to 

 render all progress in attaining to a knowledge of them extremely slow. 

 Still it may be hoped that, after the attention of naturalists has been directed 

 to the subject, no opportunity will be lost of advancing it. 



