CHAPTER XIV 



SOME RARE OR UNCOMMON FISHES 



In the present chapter account must be taken of a miscellany 

 of fishes isolated in greater or lesser degree from the 

 foregoing, and for the most part of only accidental oc- 

 currence on our coasts. In this respect, however, they will 

 be found to differ considerably, extreme cases being the 

 sturgeon and Argyropelecus, the former occurring regularly 

 each winter, the latter dredged on one occasion only in 

 deep water north of Shetland. How far some of the fishes 

 named in the present chapter are entitled to be reckoned 

 among British forms must be largely a matter of opinion. 

 The same difficulty arises in the cases of rare stragglers 

 among birds ; and, on the whole, it is convenient to allow the 

 admission of a species on the strength of even one well- 

 authenticated occurrence under natural conditions. Whether 

 on such a basis we can admit the single example of Pam- 

 melas, which was found floating in our seas in a broken 

 wooden case, is open to doubt. For present purposes, how- 

 ever, no very strict investigation has been made, and in the 

 present chapter mention will be made of every " British " 

 fish so far named and recorded that has not been included 

 in the earlier chapters. The following chart gives the 

 families to which these rarities belong, and a glance at 

 the earlier folding chart of British fishes will show more 

 closely their approximate affinities with those of greater 

 importance : — 



