60 



using my net for fresh-water MoUusca, in a drain near Guy's Cliff 

 Warwick, a specimen of this minute fish was captured. 



* Platessa flesus, Flem. Flounder. The specimen exhibited is 

 from Strangford lough, Down, and presents a malformation of the 

 head, precisely similar to that of the brill (JPleuronectes rJiombus,) 

 figured in Mr. Yarrell's British Fishes, vol. ii., p. 242. 



Pleuronectes hirtus. Mull. Muller's Top-Knot. If not inconsist- 

 ent with the brevity characteristic of the " Zoological Proceedings," 

 I would remark that the fish which I exhibited at the meeting of 

 this Society, on June 9, 1835, under the name of '^ Pleuronectes punc- 

 tatus, Penn." is identical with the " P. hirtus. Mull." of Mr. Jenyns's 

 ' Manual of the British Vertebrata' and the " Rhombus hirtus" of 

 Mr. Yarrell's ' British Fishes,' a circumstance which reference to 

 the synonyma of this species might indeed indicate, but I am induced 

 to notice the subject on account of the specific name " punctatus" 

 being applied in both works to a nearly allied species. 



My specimen, critically examined when recent, exhibited the fol- 

 lowing characters, which are unnoticed in the description of P. hirtus, 

 given in the above-mentioned works. 



P. fin, which is quite perfect, on the upper side 91 lines long, and 

 containing 6 rays, on the under side 65 lines long, and having 12 

 rays. Lateral liae on the under side less strongly marked than on 

 the upper, and considerably less curved towards its origin. A bright 

 silver spot, two lines in diameter, at the base of the P. fin on the 

 upper side ; irides silvery, clouded with brown : they are described 

 as sea-green by Hanmer, (Penn. Brit. Zool., vol. iii. p. 323, ed. 1812.) 

 It is in allusion to this individual, which I had the pleasure of show- 

 ing Mr. Yarrell, when in London in June, 1835, that he remarks, 

 " I have a record of one [Rhombus hirtus] that was caught on the 

 coast of the county of Down in Ireland." Brit. Fish. vol. ii, p. 245. 



Syngnuthus lumbriciformis, Jenyns ? Yarrell. As it has recently 

 been discovered that two species of Syngnathi have hitherto been 

 confounded under the name of S. Ophidion, it should be stated, that 

 those which I brought under the notice of this Society on June 9, 

 1835, as taken in Strangford lough, are identical with the S. lumbri- 

 ciformis, as described by Mr. Yarrell, (Brit. Fish., vol. ii. p. 340.) It 

 may be added that from Mr. Ball I have since received nine speci- 

 mens which were taken by him in June, 1835, at the South Islands 

 of Arran, off Clare, and from Captain Fayrer, R.N., several, likewise 

 caught in the same month at Donaghadee. 



The dorsal fin and vent in all these specimens, including one from 

 Belfast bay, 19 in number, which are from under 3 to 6 inches long, 

 about one-third of the entire length from the snout, and the head 

 occupying about one-twelfth of the whole length. In these charac- 

 ters they correspond with Mr. Yarrell's description. Mr. Jenyna 

 describes the " dorsal and vent at about the middle of the entire 

 length," and the head " scarcely one-seventeenth" of it. Some of 

 them exhibit ova " in hemispheric depressions, on the external sur- 



