GREAT FORKED BEARD. 291 



species of the same genus, which, according to Cuvier, is 

 the true Blennius phycis of Linnaeus, and not the British 

 fish, as supposed by Pennant and others. The British fish 

 has the first dorsal fin triangular, much higher than the 

 second, the anterior rays produced ; the ventral rays twice as 

 long as the head. The Mediterranean fish, of which I 

 possess a specimen, has the first dorsal fin low and rounded, 

 very similar in character to that of the Burbot, as figured at 

 page 267 of this volume, with the ventral rays much shorter. 

 A description and figure of this fish is given by Willughby, 

 page 205, pi. N. 12, fig. 3. 



At the time of the publication of the first edition of this 

 work, I had not seen a specimen of this fish. Since then I 

 have received a very fine example sent me by T. C. Heysham, 

 Esq. of Carlisle, from the west coast, where it has occurred 

 lately in two or three instances : one was taken on the coast 

 of the Solway Frith, near Whitehaven. Mr. Couch has very 

 kindly sent me two examples of this species, one an adult 

 specimen, the other a young fish only three inches long, which 

 was fished up in the shell of a large pinna, from a depth of 

 fifty fathoms, in July 1837. 



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