1888.] Dr Gtinther on Dee^-Water FUlies. 217 
finished spawning. This species continues to feed during the time 
of propagation, the stomach of many of the fishes being crammed 
full with large Annelids, Crustaceans, and Ophiurids. Two speci- 
mens had swallowed large pieces of a green Medusa, which 
discoloured not only the walls of the stomach, but also the ab- 
dominal muscles. 
Rliomhus megastoma. Sail Tluke. 
An adult female, 18 inches long, was caught in Kilbrennan 
Sound, 40 fathoms, on March 22. The ova were ripe for shedding. 
Stomach empty. 
Rhombus norvegicus. l^orway Top-Knot. 
(PI. IV. fig. C.) 
This species has been known to Scandinavian ichthyologists for 
the last fifty years, as a rare fish on the coasts of Sweden and 
Norway. Its first discoverer, Fries, considered it to be the 
Pleuronedes cardina of Cuvier, and in this he was followed by 
Krbyer, Sundevall, and Nilsson, until I pointed out that the species 
must be distinct, giving to it the name of Rhombus norvegicus. 
More recently this species was found by Collett to be more 
abundant on the northern shores of Norway. 
With regard to its occurrence on the coasts of Great Britain, 
Couch is the first not only to have noticed, but also to have correctly 
determined it. He had received early in the year 1863 a specimen 
from the Bristol Channel, apparently 5 inches long. The figure 
which he gives of it belongs to the more accurate of his work, and 
is perfectly recognisable. I myself became acquainted with the 
existence of this fish in the British seas in 1868 from a small 
specimen 2 inches long, which had been dredged in the sea off 
Shetland, at a depth of about 90 fathoms. The third specimen, 
now obtained, was dredged in Lamlash Bay, at a depth of from 6 
to 18 fathoms; it is inches long, and in excellent condition. 
A fourth smaller specimen was recently caught in February off 
Cloch Lighthouse, in 43 fathoms ; and a fifth, 3 J inches long, on 
March 22, in Kilbrennan Sound, in 45 fathoms. The following is a 
description of the larger example : — 
D. 80. A. 66. L. lat. 50. 
The greatest depth of the body is contained twice and two-thirds 
