of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



229 



miles east from Aberdeen, on the edge of the Norwegian deep water. 

 A specimen of the king-fish, measuring forty-one inches in length and 

 weighing fifty-six pounds, was found lying on the beach at Usan, near 

 Montrose, on 1st November 1902. Mr. Wm. Nisbet, the Fishery 

 Officer, in communicating the fact, stated that no other specimen is 

 known to have been taken in the neighbourhood since 1845, when one 

 was caught in a salmon stake-net in the same locality. 



Muller's Topknot (Zeugopferus pundatus). 



A large specimen of this species, measuring 23-2 centimetres (9^ 

 inches) in extreme length, was caught among the rocks at Peterhead on 

 the 19th September and kindly forwarded to the Laboratory by Mr. 

 Andrew Cowe. 



The Ballan Wrasse (Labrus maculatus). 



Two specimens were kindly forwarded by Mr. Robert Hendry, the 

 Fishery Ofiicer at Lerwick, which had been caught on the haddock lines 

 a few miles off Bressay Island on 22nd November. 



Bass {Labrax lupus). 



A specimen of the bass was caught on 5th. February at Kincardine-on- 

 Forth, and kindly forwarded to me by Mr. Spowart, l>i)'ness. 



Mutilated Plaice. 



A plaice 33 centimetres in length was taken in the trawl-net on 26th 

 May, which had been mutilated apparently some time previously, the 

 dorsal and ventral fins and the anal having been cut off close all round 

 and the wound cicatrised. The fish was rather thin, but otherwise 

 apparently healthy. It is interesting as showing the survival of a flat- 

 fish with only the caudal fin and the pectorals. 



Common or Black Sole. 



On 26th April a trawler landed a number of soles, which are rare on 

 the East Coast, estimated to weigh about a stone, taken eleven miles 

 W.S.W. of Cape Wrath. 



Norway Lobster {NepJirops Norvegicus). 



These are sometimes taken in large numbers by trawlers. On 27th 

 November one landed two cwts., of an estimated quantity of forty to fifty 

 cwts., taken eighty miles E.N.E. of Aberdeen in seventy fathoms, the 

 rest being thrown overboard, and on 5th October another landed three 

 cwts. taken about ninety miles E.N.E., a much greater quantity having 

 been thrown away. There is scarcely a demand for them on the market. 

 In a haul in fifty fathoms in the Moray Firth in April two basketfuls 

 were caught, most of them being small. 



The Relative Numbers of the Sexes among Skates and Rays. 



During the course of the work on trawlers a large number of rays were 

 taken, and in many instances the proportional number of the males and 

 p 



