CHAPTER XXIX 

 THE BLENNIES: BLENNIID^ 



HE great family of blennies, Blenniida, contains a vast 

 number of species with elongate body, numerous dor- 

 sal spines, without suborbital stay or sucking-disk, 

 and the ventrals jugular, where present, and of one spine and 

 less than five soft rays. Most of them are of small size, living 

 about rocks on the sea-shores of all regions. In general they 

 are active fishes, of handsome but dark coloration, and in the 

 different parts of the group is found great variety of structure. 

 The tropical forms differ from those of arctic regions in the 

 much shorter bodies and fewer vertebras. These forms are most 

 like ordinary fishes in appearance and structure and are doubt- 

 less the most primitive. Of the five hundred known species of 



FIG. 447. Sarcastic Blenny, Neoclinus satiricus Girard. Monterey. 



blennies, we can note only a few of the most prominent. To 

 Clinus and related genera belong many species of the warm 

 seas, scaly and ovo viviparous, at least for the most part. The 

 largest of these is the great kelpfish of the coast of California, 

 Heterostichus rostratus, a food-fish of importance, reaching the 

 length of two feet. Others of this type scarcely exceed two 

 inches. Neoclinus satiricus, also of California, is remarkable 



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