278 
Part III. — Tenth Annual Report 
If the rays of the dorsal and anal fins of these specimens be examined, 
the following approximative results are obtained : * — 
Total length. Dorsal. Anal. 
6'5 mm. 65 60 
6- 5t „ 64 62 
7 64? 52? (injured) 
7- 5 „ 83 63 
8 88 46? (injured) 
8- 5 „ 77 67 
9 „ 63 52 
9 „ 76 42 ? (injured) 
9 „ 82 66 
9- 5 „ 83 61 
11 „ 64 52 
The diversities in the number of rays in such examples would lead to 
the supposition either that the young of several forms (other than turbot 
and brill) were included in the list, or that considerable changes ensue 
during growth. So far as experience of other Teleosteans goes, there 
is nothing unusual in the congregation of the post-larval and young 
forms allied to the turbot and brill ; and, moreover, the close resem- 
blances which such fishes may show in their early condition has a 
parallel in the case of the cod, haddock, and whiting, but especially the 
two former. On the other hand, it has formerly been pointed out | that, 
in regard to the wolf -fish (Anarrhichas), remarkably little variation occurs 
between the osseous rays of the young form and those of the adult, 71 
being present in the dorsal of the young, measuring about § inch, and 
the same number in the adult, about 3 feet in length. 
Further, the uncertainty of the species we are dealing with must be 
borne in mind. As the younger forms show fewer rays, it is possible also 
that additions may occur to these in the earlier stages, both anteriorly 
and posteriorly. 
In the examples forwarded by Mr Holt from the coast of Donegal, and 
procured in May 1891, in deep water (29 faths., &c), the larger (about 
8*5 mm.) had D. 63, A. 57. Mr Holt, however, explains in a letter that 
the discrepancy between the rays of such examples and those of the 
adult turbot and brill with which they were for the moment compared, is 
somewhat greater than in other pleuronectids, since the dorsal often showed 
80 + and the anal 60 + . In regard to this divergence in the number of 
rays, he indeed raises the question whether his young forms (buff- 
coloured) may not belong to one of the topknots, viz., Zengopterus punc- 
tatus, Z. norvegicus, and Z. unimaculatus. No continuous series of the 
subsequent stages having been observed, the species to which these forms 
must be relegated is at present in uncertainty. 
Turning now to the turbot, it is found that the earlier stages are in- 
volved in considerable obscurity, especially those under 12 mm. In these 
stages it either takes to the ground in deep water and remains there, or, 
having gone downward, afterwards seeks the shallows inshore. So far as 
my experience goes, the subsequent stages have been procured in the tow- 
nets inshore, in trawls in the same region, by the hand-net at the margin 
of the tide on sandy beaches, or by the seine or other net on the same 
shores. Of course it is possible that some remain on the ground (in deep 
water) on which they were when the metamorphosis occurred, while the 
young from the pelagic eggs — swept inshore by the currents — simply 
developed where they were carried. It is, at any rate, a fact that 
* I am indebted to my assistant, Mr W. E. Collinge, for carefully calculating these 
and other fin-rays. 
t Mr Holt gives in the case of one 6*6 mm. 70 rays in the dorsal and 65 in the anal. 
t Researches, p. 892. 
