GYMNODONTES. 275 



Life history. — In young specimens the vertical diameter of the body, excluding 

 the fins, exceeds the length, but in adults it is somewhat more than half the 

 length. Young fish have a spine over the snout (but in adults this is merely 

 a hump above the mouth containing a bony tubercle), while conical spines are 

 scattered over the body. The teeth likewise alter with age, for in the very 

 young there are supplementary ones inside the cutting jaws, and are generally 

 present until the fish attains about a foot and a half or two feet in length. 



Diseases. — Is much infested by parasites (see Cobbold, Intellectual Observer, 

 ii, p. 82, on the " Sun-fish as a host"). Couch in 1869 sent a specimen of Lemea 

 pennatula from one to the British Museum ; Sim took one from a sun-fish at 

 Aberdeen in 1881, and in 1883 I observed another on a specimen at Mevagissey. 

 Mcintosh remarks upon one captured at St. Andrew's in October, 1862, which 

 measured 4 ft. 8 in. high and 3^ ft. long. Externally there were several specimens 

 of Tristoma coccineum on it; numerous examples of Gyrrmorhynchus horridus were 

 found in the muscles on dissection. It is often accompanied by the Pompilus. 



Uses. — An oil may be extracted from its liver. Dr. Mcintosh found this organ 

 weighed 3£ lb. in a specimen 4f- by 3^- ft. in size. 



As food. — A writer in the Field (February 4th, 1882) observes on taking a 

 sun-fish near Plymouth, that his friend cut off a large portion and sent it as 

 a present to an acquaintance who was fond of turtle soup. It was boiled by his 

 cook, and he asserted that it was the best turtle soup he had tasted for a long- 

 time, having that delicate green tinge always characteristic of the best turtle. As 

 no ill results ensued it was supposed the fish must be wholesome. Couch mentions 

 that a gentleman informed him that in the Mediterranean he procured a portion 

 of a large one, which he had cooked, and thought it good, the taste being much 

 like a crab. I have been told that the smell of this fish when captured is often 

 exceedingly offensive ; it was not so, however, of the one I examined. Risso states 

 that at Nice they are taken in great numbers, yield much oil, but that their flesh 

 is bad. 



Habitat. — This pelagic fish has a wide range, being found in temperate and 

 tropical regions ; a specimen at the late Fisheries Exhibition came from New 

 South Wales, where it is not uncommon. In Great Britain it has been captured 

 from the Orkneys and Wick to the extreme end of Cornwall, increasing in 

 numbers along the south coast. It would be an unnecessary waste of space to 

 enumerate the various localities from which this fish has been recorded, while it 

 is often seen in the Channel, and numerous examples are annually killed around 

 our coast, of course more so in some years than in others, the majority of those 

 recorded being from the commencement of June until the middle of September, or 

 even until October, while Buckland received one in December, 1863, taken off Folke- 

 stone. In 1851, on September 19th, a sun-fish 5 ft. 9 in. long was taken at Gamrie 

 on the east coast of Scotland (G. Harris, Zool. p. 3280). In November, 1874, one 

 was captured off Pittenweem, on the coast of Fife. A fisherman, when fishing a little 

 to the west of the town, saw a big dorsal fin swimming, or rather drifting along 

 the surface. At first he thought a shark was a near neighbour to him, but on 

 closer inspection he saw what the stranger was, and caught it with the boathook. 

 The hook caught the fish by entering its eye, and it was thus towed to the 

 harbour: it measured fully 4ft. from the snout to the edge of the tail, and at 

 least 8 ft. across the fins, while it weighed between 3001b. and 4001b. It was 

 exhibited to the curious as a penny show in Pittenweem, and also in the towns of 

 Anstruther and St. Monance, and a large sum was thus realized, after which 

 it was sold to a speculative cadger for three guineas and taken north to Dundee 

 for a show to the good people of that town. The odour, however, emitted from 

 the fish by that time was quite offensive. One was recorded on June 13th, 1850, 

 weighing four or five cwt., which was captured while being pursued by a 

 conger. In October, 1843, one on]y 18 in. long and 13 deep, was secui^ed at 

 Yarmouth (Zool. p. 85), and in 1850 one only 2 ft. in length was taken at 

 Hastings One 23 in. in length is now in the Exeter Museum — it was captured 

 August 10th, 1877, some miles up the Exe. Borlaso mentions it from Mount's 



18* 



