Edward had not yet finished his discovery of Midges in the Moray Firth. In November 1865 he sent to Mr. Couch a specimen of a little fish which he had caught, and which seemed quite new to him. Mr. Couch replied that it was not only new to him, but new to science. Mr. Couch expressed his regret that the Midge “had come too late to find a place by the side of its near relation, Montagu’s Midge, in his work, the last number of which had just been published.” He also added: “As your little fish is certainly new, I have thought of sending an account of it to the Linnean Society, in which case I should think it only a piece of justice to affix your name to it.”
EDWARD’S MIDGE.
EDWARD’S MIDGE—Couchia Edwardii.
Mr. Couch accordingly prepared a paper for the Linnean Society,[51] in which he embodied Edward’s description of the fish, and of its habits and habitat. He also attached to it the name of Edward’s Midge, Couchia Edwardii. In the course of Mr. Couch’s paper, he says:—
COUCHIA EDWARDII.
“Long before the discovery of the Mackerel Midge as a separate species, an account had been given by Colonel Montagu of a kindred fish, which he supposed to be common to the coast of Devonshire, and which he described as being distinguished by the possession of a pair only of the frontal barbs; and yet for more than half a century this species of Midge had remained in obscurity, until it was again brought to light by the diligent and acute observation of Mr. Thomas Edward of Banff, who found it in some abundance in the Moray Firth, and kindly supplied the writer with examples, which enabled him to give an account of it, with a figure, in the concluding portion of the fourth volume of his History of the Fishes of the British Islands. The five-bearded species had been already represented in a coloured figure in the third volume of the same book, as also in Mr. Yarrell’s well-known volumes. But a vacancy still existed in the analogy between the species of the nearly allied genera Motella and Couchia; and it is this, again, we are able to supply through the persevering diligence of Mr. Edward, whose intelligence enabled him to detect the existence of another species, and whose kindness has, with an example, communicated materials which enable the writer to produce, with a satisfactory likeness, a somewhat extended notice of its actions, the latter of which will be described, as far as can be, in this attentive observer’s own words. The length of the example from which my notes were taken is an inch and five-eighths; and as half a dozen others were about the same size, it may be judged to be their usual magnitude, as it does not differ much also from that of C. glauca and C. Montagui. Compared with the latter, its shape is more slender, the pectoral fin rather more lengthened and pointed, the ventral fins longer and slender, the cilia on the back, along the edge of the membrane, more extended, apparently more numerous, and very fine; barb on the lower jaw long; but what especially marks this little fish as distinct from the other species is, that, besides the pair of barbs in front of the head, there is a single one of much larger size in front of the upper lip, and which points directly forward with a slight inclination downward, thus analogically answering to the middle barb that projects from the snout of the four-bearded Rockling (Motella cimbria). It is probable that there are teeth in the jaws, but they can scarcely be seen, and there is a row of pores along each border of the superior maxillary bone. Some further particulars of this fish I prefer to give in the words of its discoverer, who describes its colour as a beautiful deep green along the back when caught, the sides brilliantly white; but when it reached me, preserved in spirit, it was blue, with a tinge of the same along the lateral line. In some examples in Mr. Edward’s possession the colour on the back was a faint yellow, with a narrow stripe of bluish purple on the side, and in all of them the silvery hue of the lower portions of the body is found to rise nearer the back than in the other species of this genus. The back also and head were thickly covered with very small, dark, star-like spots, which, together with two narrow yellow streaks extending from the top of the head, above the mouth, and diverging to the eyes, had disappeared when subjected to my examination. Iris of the eye silvery, the pupil bluish-green; the fins dull grey, as also the pair of barbs; but the single one on the lip at its root is almost of as deep a colour as the top of the head and back. . . .
“I regard it as no other than an act of justice to the discoverer of this fish to assign to it the name of Edward’s Midge (Couchia Edwardii), of which the specific character is sufficiently obvious.”
Mr. Edward followed up this paper by a fuller description of the Midge, after he had had an opportunity of observing a much larger number of specimens.[52]
OTHER NEW FISHES.