38 



ME. 0. SIM ON THE OCCrERENCE ETC. OE 



Occurrence of Lumpenus lampetriformis on the INTortli Coast of 

 Scotland; with Notes on its Habits, Food, and the Ground 

 it frequents. By GtEOEGE Sim. (Communicated by Dr. 

 Feancis Day, F.L.S.) 



[Read 17th June, 1886.] 



Lumpenus LAMPETBiFORMis^ the subject of the follcwing re- 

 marks, is a northern form of the tribe Blenniidse. It was described 

 by Collett, a naturalist who accompanied the Norwegian North- 

 Atlantic Expedition, 1876-78. According to this writer, Lum- 

 penus appears to be a rather common jBsh in most localities 

 along the Norwegian coast. As to its geographical distribution, 

 I cannot do better than quote from a paper on the species 

 under notice by Dr. E. Day. He says :— " Up to the present 

 time (June 1884) this species has been recorded from the coast 

 of Grreenland and Iceland. It is common ofl' Spitzbergen and 

 on the shores of North-western Europe as far south as the 

 Cattegat. In the north its range extends certainly as high as 

 80°." Collett says, " The southern limit of its range is probably 

 Bohuslan, in Sweden, one or two individuals haviug been obtained 

 off Gothenburg, 58° N." This latter writer's remarks on the 

 species are of a general description ; and nothing is said as to 

 the nature of the ground Lumpenus frequents, the other liviug 

 organisms that accompany it in its haunts, nor does he say a word 

 as to the food of this interesting species. To these points the 

 following notes more particularly refer. 



The dit^covery of this species as British is of very recent date, 

 the first example having been brought to light by Prof. M'^Intosh 

 of St. Andrews in May 1884. This one he obtained fifteen miles 

 off St. Abbs Head, while engaged in a series of observations on 

 trawling, undertaken at the instance of the Scottish Eishery 

 Board. Prof. Mcintosh sent the specimen for examination to 

 Dr. Day, who has described and given an excellent figure of it in 

 the ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society of London. 



The second specimen found in Britain I obtained on an Aberdeen 

 trawl-vessel on April 14th, 1885 ; and being quite unknown to 

 me, and not having at that time seen Dr. Day's description of 

 Prof. M'^Intosh's specimen, I made a sketch of the one now 



