226 STATURAL HISTOltT SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 



of many of our fishes, that frequently of the same species no two indi- 

 duals present similar numbers. In two smaller specimens of C. scorpius, 

 taken in Dingle Bay in the summer months, I find noted — First dorsal, 

 9; second dorsal, 12 — not marked or barred ; pectoral, 17, 18; caudal, 

 9-11 — slightly barred; anal, 10 — beautifully barred; ventral, 3 — 

 slightly marked. The G. Grcenlandicus (the C. scorpius of our shores) 

 frequents the shallows of our harbours in the months of January and 

 February, and is occasionally taken by line off piers and jetties during 

 the spawning season. It deposits its spawn among the Fuci that grow 

 on the rough stones of our shores. The ova are of a beautiful deep 

 orange colour ; and the liver in both male and female of C. Grcenlandi- 

 cus, and of C. scorpius, is large, and of a bright scarlet. The stomach is 

 large, in folds, and capable of great expansion ; for I found in one rather a 

 large specimen, entire, of the 'velvet swimming crab' {Portunus puler). 

 It is at that season of spawning, during the months from December to Fe- 

 bruary, that the male C. scorpius exhibits those vivid and brilliant 

 markings that have characterized the species Cottus Grcenlandicus, and 

 which are nothing more than the gaudy nuptial array that many of our 

 fishes at that season display, and which is most strikingly seen in an 

 allied family, the Gasterostei, or Sticklebacks. 



In the more detailed statements that I propose to give I shall allude 

 more fully to the several specific forms that so closely bear upon each 

 other, and clear up the main point of confusion, proving that the C. 

 Grcenlandicus is identical with the C. scorpius of our shores, and with 

 that originally described by Fabricius. 



In the same manner I have shown from the numerous specimens 

 obtained, during the autumn months, on the south-west coast, that the 

 European Hemiramphus is nothing more than the young state of the 

 Gar Fish (Belone vulgaris), as in all the examples that I had obtained 

 of the young state of Belone the symphysis of the lower jaw is pro- 

 longed into a long beak, destitute of teeth, before the upper jaw or 

 mandible assumed its proper development in the more mature growth 

 of the fish. 



The President called attention to the two Plates before the Society, 

 representing this fish. One was the Plate in Sir John Richardson's 

 " Fauna Boreali Americana," the other was a Plate in the " Proceed- 

 ings" of the Society of this species taken some years ago. It would 

 appear that the fish in both Plates were very similar in position, size, and 

 markings, and, no doubt, there were grounds for Sir John Richardson 

 thinking that the latter may have been a copy of the former. 



Mr. "Williams said, as explanatory of this, that he had only to state 

 that his friend Mr. Andrews produced the fish to him many years ago, 

 and he thereupon made a drawing on stone from the specimen itself; he 

 took compass measurements of the size of the spots. From the time 

 he began the drawing until he placed the stone finished in the hands of 



