1890.] SEXUAL, CHARACTERS OF ARNOGLOSSUS. 543 



The scales are estrcmly thin : those of the upper side are larger 

 and have a single row of minute spines along the posterior edge, 

 those of the lower side are smaller and are smooth with an entire 

 edge without spines. The scales along the lateral line of the lower 

 side are not pierced by a dermal tube and are not tubular ; the lateral 

 sensory tube is either rudimentary or absent on this side. On the 

 upper side the lateral dermal tube pierces a series of tubular scales 

 as usual. 



Dr. Giinther has made a mistake in stating that no author mentions 

 a prolongation of fin-rays in the common British species of Scald- 

 fish. Couch, in his ' Fishes of the British Islands,' in his description 

 of the species says : — " The dorsal fin begins in frout of the upper eye, 

 and commonly is narrow at its origin, becoming wider at half its 

 length, but in the example described several of the first rays were 

 considerably lengthened into separate threads." The character 

 thus mentioned is represented in Couch's figure, and agrees exactly 

 with the condition I have described in my larger female specimens. 

 Couch cannot be supposed to have confused the two forms, for he 

 gives a separate description and woodcut of A. loplwLes. 



Day also in his description of Arnoglossus laterna says " the dorsal 

 commences on the snout, its first few rays being occasionally some- 

 what separated one from the other and a little elevated." 



The total number of specimens brought to me in the beginning of 

 last December and on which this paper is founded was 43. I deter- 

 mined the sex of all of these by opening the body-cavity. There 

 were 30 males and only 13 females. As the specimens were collected 

 indiscriminately, it is evident that the males are far more numerous 

 than the females. The testes of the males are extremely small in 

 comparison with the size of the ovaries in the females, and this fact 

 is doubtless correlated with the numerical superiority of the males. 

 The relations of the sexes in the common Sole, as shown in my 

 treatise on that species, are quite similar. In size the sexes of 

 A. laterna show no difi'erence, the largest specimens both of males 

 and females being 20-4 cm. in length, or just over 8 inches. 



I have examined those specimens of this species which are preserved 

 entire in spirit in the collection of the British Museum of Natural 

 History, with the following results. The specimen of A. laterna 

 marked o, obtained by Mr. Murray in Kilbrennan Sound in the Firth 

 of Clyde, is a female and resembles in all respects my own female 

 specimens. There are only two entire specimens of A. lophotes — 

 one obtained by Prof. Moseley off Cardiff in 1882, another sent by 

 Prof. Doderlein from Palermo. Both are of the male sex. The 

 first is 5 1 inches long, the second Q^ inches. Both resemble my 

 male specimens in all respects. In the Cardiff specimen the 4th 

 dorsal ray is the longest, in the Palermo specimen the 5th. 



I have already stated that adult and full-grown individuals of 

 the Scald-fish are abundant off the Devon and Cornish coasts up to 

 the depth of 40 fathoms. Young specimens of all sizes from 1 cm. 

 or even less up to 1 1 or 12 cm. are very abundant in Cawsand Bay, 

 Plymouth Sound, at a depth of 2 to 6 fathoms. 



