158 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
THE SMALL-EYED COTTUNCULUS (SW. l’ADDULK EN “). 
COTTUNCULUS MICROPS. 
Fig. 45. 
Skirt rough with scattered small spines set in groups or in small transverse rows, or isolated. Length of the 
head, in adult specimens, from 35 to 37 % and its depth at the occiput from 23 to 26 % of the length of the 
body. Eyes small, their longitudinal diameter being in adult specimens about half the breadth of the interorbital 
space: and closely covered to the margin of the iris by the rough skin. The tubular, anterior nostril, with its 
margin posteriorly elongated, is situated at a distance in front of the eye about equal to the diameter of the 
pupil; the posterior is less raised , and set closer to the eye than to the anterior nostril , but also a little nearer 
the middle line of the snout. Bays of the anal fin less than 11. Three rays in the ventral fins. The lateral line 
of the body opens into a row of about 15 scattered pores, of which at least the anterior are set at the top of 
verrucose protuberances. That part of the system of the lateral line which belongs to the head, has large open 
pores under the margin of the preoperculum and the lower margin of the pre orbital bone {on the dermal flap above 
the maxillary bones). The vent is situated in adult specimens about half-way between the insertion of the ventral 
fins and the beginning of the anal. The anal region {in the male during the sp atoning -season) swollen into a large, 
conical papilla. Coloration grayish-white , with large, black spots, which resemble transverse bands, and are here 
and there interrupted by or mingled with round spots of the ground-colour. 
Fig. 45. Cottunculus microps, p, natural size. Taken on the east coast of Greenland, 65° 30' N., at a depth of 130 fathoms. 
R. br. G; D. A. 10; P. 17—20; V. 3; C. ®+6+«; 
13—15 
L. lat. (por.) 10 — 18. 
iS'yn. Cottunculus microps, Coll., Vid. Selsk. Forli. Crist. 1874, 
Tillsegsh., p. 20, tab. 1, fig. 1 — -3; ibid. 1878, No. 14, p. 
20; ibid. 1879, No. 1, p. 11; Id., Norsk. Nordh. Exped., 
Zool., Fiske , p. 18; Lillj., Sv., Norg. Fisk., vol. I, p. 113; 
— (?) Jord., Gilb., Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 16, p. 688 — ; 
Coll. N. Mag. Naturv., Bd. 29 (1884), Heft. 1, p. 53. 
Obs. The large eyes (“equal to the snout”) and the large 
number of soft rays (19) in the dorsal fin render it extremely doubt- 
ful whether the specimen taken off Rhode Island and described by 
Jordan and Gilbert (1. c.), belongs to this species. 
The Small-eved Cottunculus seems to be a true 
Arctic form, though, according to Gunther'’, it was 
found by the English “Knight Errant” Expedition of 
1880, in the cold bottom- water between Scotland and 
the Faroe Islands, at a depth of 540 fathoms. It had 
previously been found by Professor G. O. Sars at a 
depth of 200 fathoms, off Hasvig, near Hammerfest, 
and by the Norwegian Arctic Expedition between Nor- 
way and Bear Island, and also west of the Norway 
Islands (the north-west of Spitsbergen), on a clayey 
bottom, at depths varying from about 200 to 450 
fathoms. A fairly large number of specimens have 
“ Lilljebokg, 1. c. 
1 About 10, according to Collett. In the specimen belonging to the Royal Museum, we find 18. 
c Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb., vol. XI (1881 — 82), p. 679. 
