118 Observations on Border Fishes, by Mr. A. Brotherston. 



specimens became the subject of a notice by Mr Selby in the 

 first volume of the Magazine of Zoology and Botany, where 

 they were correctly referred to the Goldsinny of Jago. In the 

 first edition of Yarrell's British Fishes, the author misled by 

 Pennant in Brit. Zool. called the Corkwing — ( Crenilabrus JVor- 

 wegicus) Cuv.—the Goldsinny of Jago, and Fleming appears to 

 consider it a variety of C. tinea. "In some varieties there is a 

 black spot on the tail and another at the beginning of the dorsal 

 fin constituting the Goldsinny of Jago."* (Brit. An. p. 208, sp. 

 128). In the 3rd Ed, of Yarrell's " Brit. Fishes," v. i., 498, C. 

 Norwegicus and C. tinea are considered the same species, and 

 united under Crenilabrus melops, Cuv. et Valenc. xiii., p. 167. 



Y. Tadpole Fish [Raniceps trifurcatus) Flem. — A specimen, 

 10J inches in length, of this rare fish, was found at the same 

 time and place as the Goidsinnys. Fleming describes two species, 

 R. trifurcatus and E. Jago=Barlus minor Jago,f but both these 

 are considered as one by later authorities ; the characters of R. 

 trifurcatus having been taken from a dry ; and R. Jago from a 

 fresh fish, as it does not show the tubercles, which are situated 

 on each side at the commencement of the lateral line, until it is 

 dry. The description of this species in Yarrell's "British 

 Fishes," is taken from Dr Johnston's Address read at the first 

 Anniversary Meeting of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, in 

 Sept. 1832. It differs slightly from that of the present example ; 

 he refers to the tubercles on the origin of the lateral line as pea- 

 like tubercles, in this they were elongated, obscure elevations 

 which could not be seen until the •skin was dry. When describ- 

 ing the head he says " there is a slight depression between the 

 eyes," and Dr Parnell in "Mag. Zool. and Bot." says, concern- 

 ing the same " with the crown of it remarkably flattened and de- 

 pressed. ' ' Although large and nattish there was no depression be- 

 tween the eyes. Dr Johnston and Dr Parnell' s descriptions do not 

 agree in the colour of the eyes; the first has them "lateral, 

 prominent, round, and Hack" the latter, " of a pale yellow colour." 



* [" Macula nigra insigni juxta caudam notatur ; Pinnae quoque dorsalis 

 radii priores tinctura nigra imbuuntur.'' — Eev. George Jago in Hay' s Synopsis 

 Methodica Fiscium, p. 163, London, 1713.] 



[ t The Rev. George Jago, of Looe, in Cornwall, was the first to describe 

 and figure both forms, which he called the ' ' Great and Lesser Forked- 

 Beard" respectively. Raii Synopsis, &c, p. 163, 164.] 



