DRAGONETS. 
279 
prey, and invariably return to the same spot again.” 
The Dragonets live on small prey, which may be easily 
seized. In the stomach we generally find several kinds 
of small crustaceans and univalves, and the thin in- 
testinal canal is crammed with the crushed shells of 
these animals. 
As the Dragonets belong to the species despised 
by the fishermen, there is no particular method of fish- 
ing for them; and the few specimens that are acci- 
dentally taken, are thrown away. For all this, their 
flesh is very fine, white and agreeable, and would, with- 
out doubt, furnish an appetising dish, if sent to table. 
Occasionally, though seldom, a specimen or two may 
be taken on the hook during summer, but most of the 
catches are made in nets or large Herring-seines. 
(Fries, Smitt.) 
THE LESSER DRAGONET. 
CALLIONYMUS MACULATES. 
Plate XV, fig. 1. 
Length of the head from the front 'point of the intermaxillary hones , ivlien retruded, to the hind branchial margin “, 
which is hidden by the skin , less than 24 % of the length of the body, and to the anterior margin of the gill- 
opening less than 18 % thereof or than 2 / 3 of the base of the anal fin. Base of the anal fin more than 26 % 
of the length of the body, and also more than either the length of the head as first given, or the distance between 
the first dorsal fin and the tip of the snout, and lastly at least about 70 % of the distance between the anal fin 
and the tip of the snout. _ Least depth of the tail at most about 12 % of the length of the base of the anal fin, 
and the breadth across the insertions of the ventral fins at most about 47 % of the latter. Course of the lateral 
line considerably above the middle of the sides. Posterior dorsal fin marked with ocellated round spots, set in 
several transverse rows. 
R. br. 6; D. 4|9(8); A. 9; P. 18 1. 19; V. V 5 ; G. w + 1 +x. 
Syn. Dracunculus, Willughby, Hist. Pise., lib. IV, cap. XXV ; Ray, 
Syn. Meth. Pise., p. 79; nee Rondelet. 
Callionymus dracunculus, Brunn., Ichthyol. Massil., p. 17; 
Schagerstr., Vet.-Akad. Handl. 1833, p. 133, tab. I, figs 
1 — 3 (nec synon., nee fig. 4). 
Callionymus maculatus , - Raf., Caratt., p. 25, sp. 60, tab. V, 
fig. 1; Bp., Icon. Fn. Ital., tom. Ill ( Pesci ), No. 104, tav., 
figs 2 et 3, fasc. Ill; Fr., Vet.-Akad. Handl. 1837, p. 48; 
Id. et v. Wright, Skancl. Fisk., ed. I, p. 102, tab. 24; Kr., 
Damn. Fisice , vol. 1, p. 442; Nilss., Skancl. Fn., Fisk., p. 
216; Gthr, Cat. Brit. Mus., Fish., vol. Ill, p. 144; Ca- 
nestr., Arcb. Zool., Anat., Fisiol., vol. II, p. 110, tab. 1, 
fig. 2; Gthr, Ann., Mag., Nat. Hist., ser. 3, vol. 20, p. 290, 
tab. V, fig. A; Steind., Stzber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, LVII 
(1868), I, p. 416; Coll., Fork. Vid. Selsk. Christ., 1874, 
Tillaegsh., p. 62; Malm, Gbgs, Boll. Fn., p. 444; Mor., 
Hist. Nat. Poiss., Fr., tom. II, p. 169; Day, Fish. G:t 
Brit., Irel., vol. I, p. 177, tab. LIII, fig. 5; Lillj., Sv., 
Norg. Fn., Fisk., vol. 1, p. 666. 
Callionymus lyra, Risso, Ichth. Nice, p. 113; Fur. Mer., vol. 
Ill, p. 262. Call, cithara + Call, reticulatus, Cuv., Val., 
Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. XII, pp. 280 et 284. 
Obs. Though the oldest post-Linnsean name of the species is 
dracunculus, and though Brunnich’s description is conclusive proof 
of his having correctly understood the difference between this species 
and the preceding one, still the reiterated misuse of the name drac- 
unculus in previous writers seems to render it advisable to let this 
name drop. Schagerstrom does not quote Brunnich as his authority, 
but grounds his opinion on those of his predecessors who have wrongly 
described the female of Call, lyra as a distinct species, under the 
name of Call, dracunculus; and in SchagerstrSm dracunculus, which 
in Linnteus etc. was a half-species, so to speak, becomes a double 
species, for he describes and figures a young female of lyra as a 
specimen of the former. The original of his fig. 4 is preserved in 
the Royal Museum, and, as Lilljeborg has also remarked, is a female 
of the preceding species. This is also shown by the measurements 
which Sci-iagerstrom has given in his description, of the length of 
the head and the caudal fin, and of the distance between the anal 
fin and the point of the chin, as well as by his description of the 
colouring of the second dorsal fin, though the correctness of these 
characters can no longer be tested by an examination of the specimen, 
the body of which has once been dried until hard and bent. Fries 
had no opportunity of examining this specimen, which did not come 
into the possession of the Royal Museum until 1851, when it was 
bequeathed to the collections by Schagerstr6m; but in the first edition 
of “Scandinavian Fishes" he writes: “to judge by the description it 
must have been an ordinary female specimen of C. lyra." 
“In a genus so natural as Callionymus,'’ writes 
Fries in the Transactions of the Swedish Academy of 
Science for 1837, “where the difference between the 
sexes is also so considerable, and the relative size of 
the parts of the body so subject to changes of growth, 
the diagnosis of the species must always be fraught 
with difficulty. To judge by the relations between the 
See p. 273, note a. 
