81 



pectoral 12 ; ventral 1 ; no anal. No teeth ; a soft tongue. The face 

 and inside of the mouth hlack. Anus 4 feet 9 inches from the head. 

 Iris a silver- white. He ran on shore at Filey Bay, March 18, 1796 ; 

 was seen by four women, who took him and sold him to a man who 

 brought him to York, where on March 21 I saw him. Though there 

 was then no caudal fin, it is not clear that he never had one, for there 

 was an appearance of mutilation in its place. The two sides were 

 precisely alike. The eye in the drawing is placed a little too low." 

 — W.B. 



This description is mentioned by M. Valenciennes in his ' Histoire 

 des Poissons,' x. 365, under the name of Gymnetrus Banksii ; nothing 

 is said of the figures which accompanied the letter. I can see nothing 

 in the account or figures to induce me to believe that it is different 

 from the Regalecus Glesne, or the specimen from Cornwall. 



Mr. Yarrell, in his letter to Mr. Whitehead, printed in Dr. Jacobs's 

 account of the Northumberland specimen, p. 10, gives the description 

 of a specimen which was caught in March 1844, at Crovie, near Mac- 

 duff, in Scotland, sent by Mr. John Marten of Elgm to Dr. George 

 Johnston and Mr. Yarrell. 



It would therefore appear that the specimen from the coast of 

 Northumberland is at least the fourth time that a fish of this genus 

 has been recorded as found on the coast of Britain. 



From the comparison of the various descriptions and figures given 

 by the English observers, and those given by Ascanius, Brunnich and 

 Lindroth, I believe there is only a single species yet found in the 

 North Sea, and it appears that that species occasionally comes as far 

 south as the coast of Cornwall. 



The great distinction between Regalecus Glesne and R. GrilUi is 

 the number of the rays in the dorsal fin ; but as Valenciennes justly 

 observes, that Ascanius' s figure represents more rays than he de- 

 scribes the specimen to have had, and in this respect it agrees with 

 the description of R. Grillii and with the specimens which have since 

 occurred, I think it probable that the number in the text is a mis- 

 print. 



Ascanius represents the five longitudinal streaks mentioned in the 

 description of the Filey specimen. 



Mr. Whitehead's specimen agrees with the one from Filey, in 

 having the five convex longitudinal lines. These lines are shown in 

 the painting made from the fish when more fresh, but they are not 

 so distinct in the specimen in the fluid ; yet they have been rendered 

 more visible than when I first saw it by some glass which had been 

 put on the specimen to sink it in the fluid. 



The black bands so well marked in the painting of this fish were 

 also observed in the specimen cast ashore at Crovie, near Macduff, in 

 March 1844, described by Mr. Marten, and in Gymnetrus Grillii of 

 Lindroth ; and they are indistinctly represented in the drawing of 

 the Cornish specimen. 



The ventral fins in Mr. Marten's specimen "consisted of two fila- 

 ments 3 feet in length ; they were fringed with a thin membrane on 

 two sides, and had evidently been broken." 



No. CXCV. — Proceedings of the Zoologic.\l Society. 



