THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER. 



AUGUST, 1869. 



RIBBAND FISHES OF THE GENUS GYMNETRUS. 



BY JONATHAN COUCH, F.L.S. 



The habits of that family of Ribband or Band fishes called Gym- 

 netrus are so little known that their history for the most part, 

 is confined to the knowledge of the places where they have been 

 taken, and the circumstances attending the capture. Yet there 

 is reason to believe that they are widely distributed in the Ocean; 

 for while the greater number of instances in which they have 

 been obtained have been in the north of Europe, one at least 

 is believed to have occurred in the East Indies, one in New 

 Zealand, and another among the islands of Bermuda, of the 

 particulars of which we intend to give a more minute account. 



The earliest reference we have of a fish of this kind as being 

 obtained in Britain, is quoted from the Annual Register by 

 Albany Hancock, Esq. and Dr. Embleton, as having occurred 

 about the year 1759 ; but it was not described by any scientific 

 naturalist, and we might have entertained doubts concerning 

 the species, and even the genus, but for the mention of a 

 circumstance attending it which has since accompanied the 

 capture of every example, and which, therefore, while it forms 

 a character, permits a doubt to continue with regard to the 

 exact form of some of its parts. It became easily broken 

 and mutilated when handled, as was the case also with the 

 next specimen of which we have any account. This was 

 left, dead by the tide near the little town of Newlyn, close to 

 Penzance in Cornwall, in February 1788; the date of which 

 is to be particularly noted, since there appear to have been 

 repeated mistakes concerning it. The occurrence of this 

 example, which was then believed to have been its earliest 

 instance in Britain, excited considerable attention at the time ; 

 and of it I possess a coloured drawing*, which was presented to 

 me by Mr. Chirgwin, near whose house the fish was found, and 

 who expressed his' belief that it was the authentic original from 

 which all the other figures that have been circulated were copied. 



VOL. II. HO. I. B 



