452 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
taken in a seine, at a depth of 6 or 7 fathoms. On 
the coasts of France, according to Moreau, it is rare, 
though it is sometimes exposed for sale. v. Duben and 
Koren assume that the spawning-season occurs in the 
spring, as on the 4th of April they took a female “with 
well-developed ovaries, though the roe did not seem 
quite ripe for depositing.” On the Irish coast, on the 
other hand, Thompson found on the 21st of October 
a female that had just finished spawning, a few ripe 
eggs being still left in the ovaries. The Whiff is a 
voracious fish-of-prey, as is shown by its large gape, 
and lives on other fishes and crustaceans. As food it 
is of very little importance in Scandinavia, thin as it 
is and of so rare occurrence; but its flesh, according 
to Duguid“, is of exquisite flavour, though it will not 
keep a single day. 
Genus SCOPHTHALMUS. 
Jaw-teeth of uniform size {no canines), pointed, recurved, small, and set in a card on the front part of the inter- 
maxillary hones and of the lower jaw ■ Head of the vomer toothless or b furnished with small, indistinct teeth. 
Palatine hones and tongue smooth. Lower pharyngeal teeth set in several rows ( cardiform ). Most of the fin-rays 
{except in the pectoral fin of the eye side ) branched. Branchiostegal membranes united, below for a little ivay and 
behind this point {also for a narrow strip) crossing each other. Branchiostegal rays 7. Median wall of the branchial 
cavity pierced above the urohyoid bone by an oval hole. Ventral fins free from the anal fin. Scales ciliated on 
both sides of the body. Anal spine and preanal spines wanting. Distance between the anal fin and the tip of 
the snout less than the length of the head. 
In 1810 ' Rafinesque coined a generic name, Scoph- 
thalmus, but this was probably merely a synonym of 
Bothus d , which just precedes it in his work. Bonaparte 
adopted this name*, however, for a group of Bothoids (in 
his writings the genus Rhombus) which he characterized 
by the deep cleft of the mouth, the close approximation 
of the eyes, the situation of the vent exactly at the 
ventral edge, and the ciliated scales. The last char- 
acter, which applies to both sides of the body, unites 
Scophthalmus unimaculatus of the Mediterranean and 
the Atlantic up to the Shetland Islands with Scoph- 
thalmus norvegicus of the Scandinavian fauna. Both 
these species too — as far as I could find in 8 speci- 
mens of Scophthalmus norvegicus — are without teeth 
on the palate. It is thus evident that they must be- 
long to the same genus for which Gunther has more 
recently 7 proposed the name of Phry norhombus. 
The genus Scophthalmus thus contains two species 
from European waters, the southern form with its deeper 
body, forming a sort of transition to the following genus, 
while the Scandinavian species is more akin to the pre- 
ceding genus. 
a See Richardson, 1. c. 
l ' In the Scandinavian species, according to Steenstrup. 
c Ind. Ittol. Sic., p. 53. 
d See Jordan and Gilbert, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1882, p. 57 0. 
e Icon. Fn. Ital ., tom. Ill (Pesci), p. No. 23 (sub Rhombus rhomboides ) and tab. 103 (sub Rhombus unimaculatus). Here, it is true, 
he speaks of Scophthalmus merely as a subgenus; but in the index (Nomenclatura moderna) lie has included Scophthalmus unimacidatus. 
S Cat. Brit. Mus., Fish., Vol. IV, p. 414. 
