289 Part III. — Eighteenth Annual Report 



Nerophis cequoreus (Linne). The Straight-Nosed Pipe-fish. 



East Loch Tarbert, amongst zostera (B. & S.). A fine specimen is 

 in the Eobertson collection in the Marine Station at Millport, which was 

 captured at Cumbrae. 



Nerophis lumbriciformis (Linne). The Worm Pipe-fish. 



Taken in East Loch Tarbert amongst zostera (B. & S.). I have 

 taken this little fish amongst weed between tide marks in Lunderston 

 Bay, near Inverkip, and it has also been taken by the " Garland " in 

 Campbeltown Loch, Cantyre. 



Hippocampus antiquorum, Leach. The Sea-horse. 



Mr. Gray, of the Marine Station at Millport, writes to me concerning 

 this species as follows : — " I picked up a specimen of Hippocampus on 

 the Kinloch Park, Campbeltown, in the autumn of 1894, from a spot 

 where herring seine-nets had been spread out to dry, and from the fresh 

 condition of the fish I had no doubt whatever that it had been caught in 

 the nets in the Sound of Kilbrennan, and been shaken out on the spot 

 where I found it. Still I did not see it alive, so there is room for the 

 element of doubt to creep in ; though this evidence, therefore, may not 

 be quite conclusive, I have very little doubt in my own mind of the little 

 fish having been caught in the Kilbrennan Sound. Moreover, I may 

 mention, by way of confirming what has just been said, that during the 

 past summer a gentleman visitor to the Marine Station told me that many 

 years ago his own children caught two live Hippocampus in a pool on the 

 Fairlie sands, and kept them alive for about a week in a vessel of sea- 

 water. I took the gentleman to Mrs. Robertson of Fernbank, who 

 happened at the time to be in the museum connected with the station, and 

 to her he repeated the story also. Since then I feel more firmly convinced 

 that the Campbeltown specimen was a genuinely local one." 



Hippocampus has been recorded from Belfast Lough, which is not very 

 far distant from the mouth of the Clyde ; and the same species is also 

 recorded for the West Coast of Scotland in Harvey-Brown and Buckley's 

 work on the Vertebrate Fauna of Argyle and the Inner Hebrides. 



Order PLECTOGNATHI. 



Fam. Gymnodontes, 



Orthagoriscus mola, Linne. The Short Sun-fish. 



A specimen of the short sun-fish was captured off the Esplanade at 

 Greenock on September 10th, 1881 (J. M. Campbell).* This specimen 

 was said to weigh about a ton; it measured 7 feet 9 inches in length and 

 3 feet 9 inches in height. Mr. Campbell states that "the liver was 

 absolutely crammed with a scolecid worm, Tetrarhynchus reptans." 



SUB-CLASS CHONDROPTERYGII. 



Order GANOIDEI. 



Fam. Acipenserhle. 



Acipenser sturio, Linne. The Sturgeon. 



Fine specimens are often noticed in Loch Fyne during the herring 

 fishery, but are seldom captured (B. &, S.). Mr. Alexander Gray, of the 



* Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. t Glasgow, Vol. V., pt. II., p. 177 (1883). 



