528 



LIST OF FISHES 



market. ;Mr Pennant says, he did not observe in 

 the wolf- fish any lateral line ; but he had described 

 from a specimen which had been kept for some 

 time ; for, in the newly caught fish, the lateral 

 line is sufficiently obvious. In our market, the 

 fish seldom exceeds two feet in length : it ha9, 

 however, been got in the mouth of the Frith above 

 five feet long. Its stomach is often found nearly 

 filled with fragments of large and small whelks 

 and crabs, (Buccinum undatum, Turbo littoreus, 

 Cancer pagurus, C. depurator, and others.) 



Ammodytes. 



A. Tobianus, Sand-lance; Sand-eel ; Hornel. 



In the summer months, the sand-lance may be 

 taken in great numbers, by digging in the wet 

 sands near the Black Rocks, in front of Leith 

 Harbour, at ebb-tide. The largest sand-lances are 

 called by the fishermen hornels. 



[That the Sword-fish, Xiphias Gladius, occa- 

 sionally enters our Frith, appears from the autho- 

 rity of Sir Robert Sibbald, who describes one 

 caught there, which was exhibited in Edinburgh 

 as a show. — No species of the genus Ophidium 

 has yet occurred to me.] 



