252 



Part III. — Twenty-third Annual Report 



parent, and its eyes were the only conspicuous part of it, the silvery lustre 

 contrasting with the intense black pigment, of which there was also a 

 somewhat triangular patch on the upper surface. 



At first it habitually lurked in concealment under the overhanging 

 edge of the stone, only its head being visible. On being disturbed its 

 first movement was to withdraw the head also, but if the disturbance 

 continued, it came out from its lair and swam slowly round the vessel, 

 close to the sand, with an undulatory or serpentine movement, stopping 

 every now and again and swaying its head to one side or the other as if 

 examining the bottom, which it occasionally tapped suddenly with its 

 snout. Later, it took up a position on the top of the stone, among the 

 weeds, with its body entwined among the stems. 



In the part of the other specimen, examined later after preservation 

 in formaline, the depth behind the head was 6mm. and the thickness 

 3mm., the diameter of the eye being l'5mm. The lower jaw was con- 

 spicuously longer than the upper, projecting considerably beyond it ; 

 minute dots of dusky pigment existed on the tip of the snout, and still 

 more markedly on and around the tip of the lower jaw, extending 

 backwards under it. The tissues had a solid consistence. This speci- 

 men thus appears to differ somewhat from the one I described last year. 



The Anchovy (Enrjraulis encrasieholus). 



In some previous reports I have described the occurrence of the 

 anchovy in Scottish waters.* Ou 29th June, last year, a specimen was 

 taken in a sparling (or smelt) net, near Creetown, Wigton Bay, and 

 was sent by Mr. W. Poole, of that place, to Mr. R. Duthie, the Fishery 

 Officer of the district, whom I have to thank for the specimen. Com- 

 pared with other Scottish specimens that have come into my hands, it 

 is unusually large. The end of the tail is damaged, and its length, as it 

 is, is 178mm., or 7 inches, but when perfect it probably measured about 

 184mm. According to Day, the anchovy rarely exceeds 6| inches, but 

 he mentions that Dunn has obtained specimens off the Cornish coast 

 measuring eight inches in length. 



The Catfish (Anarrhichas lupus). 



The spawning period of this fish has not yet been well determined; 

 it may therefore be worth while recording that on 6th August last, 

 among a number which were caught by a trawler in 49 fathoms, six 

 miles north-west of Foula Island, which lies to the westwards of the 

 Shetlands, some of the females had the eggs well advanced. The fish 

 were opened by Captain Samuel Caie and the eggs were sent in bottles to 

 the Marine Laboratory. In three cases the eggs measured from 3mm. 

 to 4mm. and were obviously immature, but in one instance they were 

 fully mature, measuring 6mm., and they were isolated and separate, and 

 apparently ready for extrusion. 



M'Intosh and Masterman t are probably right in supposing that the 

 main spawning time of this fish is from November to January, with a 

 margin on either side ; but the existence of a fully ripe female at the 

 beginning of August shows that spawning may begin much earlier than 

 November. 



An Albino Plaice. 



I am indebted to Mr. James Robb for a specimen of an albino plaice 



* Eighth Annual Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland, Part III., p. 351 ; 

 Twentieth, 'ibid., p. 539. 

 f British Marine Food Fishes, p. 201. 



