of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



207 



Distance from tip to tip of tail, 2 feet 10 inches. 



Ventral fin (base to apex), 10|^ inches. 



Pectoral fin (base), 4J inches. 

 „ (height) 17 inches. 

 „ expanse at tip, 9 inches. 



Anal fin (base to apex) 1 foot 4 inches. 

 „ (base), 6J inches. 



Diameter of exposed part of eye (conjunctiva); vertical, 2 J inches; 

 horizontal, 2| inches. 



This species is a well-known Mediterranean form, and much esteemed 

 as food. The muscles of the present example were very palatable. In its 

 stomach were 3 haddocks of the size termed ' small,' 2 lemon dabs, and 

 2 common dabs. The tunny in our seas appears occasionally to follow 

 herrings. Thus, one about the same size as the present specimen was 

 captured in the herring-nets in the Gairloch, nearly opposite Greenock, in 

 July 1831, and is now in Andersonian Museum, Glasgow.* This solitary 

 form from the Forth was evidently of considerable age, and its reproductive 

 organs appeared to be in a degenerate condition. It thus, like the old males 

 of other forms, had probably less interest in social life, and if not driven off 

 by other males, had spontaneously taken to a nomad existence. Most of the 

 figures given by previous authors, including the recent figure by Mr Day, 

 differ so much from each other, and from the accurate outline accom- 

 panying this note, that considerable alteration must occur with advancing 

 age, or the artists had not observed with scientific eyes. 



It is curious that, on the crustacean parasites of the gills, the little 

 hydroid zoophyte, Ohelia, flourished in great luxuriance. Several large 

 parasitic monostomes occurred at the commencement of the stomach — 

 almost at the oesophageal border. 



Weever {Greater and Lesser). — Two species of Weeverf have been 

 described by most authors who have treated of the fishes of our own and 

 continental countries, viz., the Greater and the Lesser Weever. So far as 

 previous and present examinations, however, can guide me, I am inclined 

 to think there is a very close relationship between them, and that it is 

 possible that one is only the young stage of the other, and that certain 

 distinctions such as the absence of spines above the orbit in the smaller 

 form, and its great depth in proportion to its length, disappear with age. 

 Moreover, in the adult itself, there is considerable variation ; for instance, 

 in the semi-membranous prolongation of the free margin of the operculum. 

 The variation in the pigment is easily explicable on other grounds than 

 those of specific distinction. That the smaller form should be fertile at an 

 early age is not altogether a reliable basis of separation, and we know that 

 considerable modification in outline occurs during the growth of several 

 fishes. Besides, I have not been so fortunate as to secure the young 

 forms of the so-called ' Greater Weever,' while the young of the ' Lesser 

 Weever ' have been familiar to me for many years from an inch in length 

 upward. 



The smaller form (Lesser Weever) frequents extensive sandy reaches, 

 such as those of the west sands of St Andrews, where it delights to 

 immerse itself in the sand, and is tossed on shore after severe storms at 

 all stages. The larger form (Greater Weever), on the other hand, is 

 found as a rule, especially if well grown, in deeper water. In this, of 

 course, it would only coincide in habit with the larger forms of certain 

 other species of fishes. 



* Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist., vi. p. 529. 



t Trachinus draco, L., Greater Weever, and TracMnus vipera, Cuv. and Val., 

 Lesser Weever. 



