SOME RARE OR UNCOMMON FISHES 293 



in both Cawsand and Kenmare Bays, and Mr. Walker found 

 it in Rhos Weir in 1888, the third specimen recorded from 

 that locality in the course of thirty-five years.* The allied 

 P. aldrichii was added to the British fauna by Bourne in 1889. 



The Lesser Forkbeard (Rankeps raninus) resembles one 

 of the suckers (^Liparis montagui) in shape, but is easily dis- 

 tinguished by the small barbel on its lip, as well as by the 

 absence of sucking-disc and spots. The fins are black and 

 edged with white. In colour the fish is brown above, with 

 bluish tints, and white below. It does not appear to be 

 gregarious, like the majority of the cods, and it may be small, 

 as none of those taken on our coasts have exceeded a foot in 

 length. It appears to occur fairly widely in our seas, being 

 recorded chiefly from the south-west and north-east, and Holt 

 regards it as not uncommon in the mouth of the Humber. 

 Occasionally it is caught on lines. 



The Norway Pout (Gadus esmarkii), which had been noted 

 as British by GUntherf in 1888, was about then included for 

 the first time in the fauna of our seas. Harvie-Brown and 

 Buckley J describe it as not uncommon in Kilbrannan Sound, 

 and it has since then been recorded from Northumberland and 

 from the west coasts of both Scotland and Ireland (1890-91). 

 Until as recently as 1897 it was regarded as absent from the 

 Channel, but Matthias Dunn identified it on the Cornish coast 

 in the summer of that year. It came about in this way. 

 Great shoals of hake had most unexpectedly put in an appear- 

 ance in those bays, and Dunn, curious to know what might be 

 the particular attraction, directed his son Howard to examine 

 the contents of the stomach when the hake were opened. 

 Howard Dunn found some small gadoids, which he took to be 

 young whiting, but which, from his description, his father 

 thought rather to be poutassou (G. poutassou). When, however, 



* Herdman and Dawson, Fishes and Fisheries of the Irish Sea, p. 48. 



t Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb., 1888. 



% Fauna of the Outer Hebrides, p. 203. 



