of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



209 



Mr Cunningham found that specimens 1 inch long on the 21st May- 

 were 3£ inches in August in the tanks of the laboratory at Plymouth ; 

 while, in May of the following year, one had grown to a length of fully 

 5 inches. He does not, however, clearly indicate the age of the examples 

 measuring 1 inch. 



Day observes that at an early stage the five-bearded rockling may be 

 distinguished from the three-bearded by the presence of dull yellowish rays 

 in the dark ventral fins ; when nearly an inch long by the five barbels, 

 by the brownish hue of the back and trunk. The eyes are smaller, the 

 space between them broader, and the barbels are longer. The first dorsal 

 fin is also longer from before backwards. Some of those characters, how- 

 ever, are of little avail in preserved material ; and hence the necessity for 

 a careful revision of all the more permanent features. 



4. On the very young stages op the Tadpole Hake 

 (Raniceps raninus, L.). 



Parnell says that this species sheds its spawn in April, while E. Couch 

 gives July. J. Couch observes that in April the roe appeared to be at 

 the beginning of its enlargement. 1 That the young ones are produced at 

 ' no great distance from the coast appears probable, although they are 

 ' rarely met with ; but Mr Newman found several of small size amongst 

 ' sprats in London ; and I learn from Charles H. Catty, Esq., F.L.S., that 

 1 he obtained a small example at Great Yarmouth.'* Day, again, mentions 

 that, in Mr Thompson's fish, taken on October the 8th, ' ova were contained 

 ' in two small lobes, about an inch in length.' He also adds that Mr Dunn 

 has taken very small ones from the stomachs of other fishes. In the ' Scan- 

 dinavian Fishes ' it is stated that 1 Nilsson was told that the tadpole-fish 

 ' spawns between Martinmas and Christmas, but this is probably an ex- 

 1 ception to the general rule.' It may also be an error. Further, ' In the 



* month of July, Fries observed, on the coast of Bohuslan, two tadpole-fish 

 ' that kept close to each other, and, caressing each other in every possible 



* manner, came right up to a landing-place in 3 dm. of water, where they 

 ' finally hid themselves under the frame of the pier.' It is also mentioned 

 that two young tadpole-fishes, between 6 and 6 \ cm. long, were captured 

 in October. 



The foregoing contains all the information on the subject, until, on the 

 29th October 1894, a very young specimen was procured by the ' Garland,' 

 in the Moray Frith, between Coversea and Eurghead. The total length 

 is about 9 mm. The outline of the little fish is remarkably clavate, the 

 anterior end rising somewhat abruptly upwards from the slender body ; 

 while the prominent vent, with its anterior ridge along the ventral surface 

 of the abdomen, still further gives bulk to the region (Plate VI. figs. 7 

 and 8). This anterior enlarged part of the fish occupies 4 out of the 9 

 mm. The skin seems to have been distinctly pigmented, a large shield- 

 shaped area of brownish-black chromatophores, with its broad end in 

 front, occurring between and behind the eyes, with a few isolated specks 

 posteriorly. The cheeks below the eyes are also speckled with the same 

 pigment. The sides of the body from the pectorals backward are 

 minutely marked with blackish-brown pigment, which, in the preparation, 

 does not reach the tail. On the ventral surface the pigment forms a V, 

 with the apex forward, in the hyoidean region ; and the angle of the ventral 

 fin on each side is marked by the same chromatophores. 



The snout is comparatively blunt, and the black eyes are (in spirit) of 

 moderate or even small size for so large a head in a post-larval fish. They 



* Couch, vol. iii. p. 123. 



o 



