

YARKELL S BLENNY. 



A comparison of tlie figure at the head of this article 

 with that of the Crested Blcnny of the British Zoology, 

 will leave but little or no doubt that they are intended 

 to represent the same species ; yet the Crested Blenny 

 of Pennant, with its two pair of appendages on the head, 

 was referred by Strom, Linnaeus, Pennant, and Gmelin, 

 to the galerita of Rondeletius ; a Mediterranean species, fur- 

 nished with only a single pair of very short and scarcely 

 remarkable appendages over the eyes, and having, in addi- 

 tion, on the back part of the head a transverse fold of skin, 

 which at a certain period becomes enlarged. Linnseus's 

 acquaintance with the true B. galerita appears to have been 

 founded solely on the works of Artedi. The reference by 

 Gmelin of the Crested Blenny of Pennant to B. galerita, 

 has led many northern zoologists to give that specific name 

 to Pennant's fish ; and not only the later edition of Pennant's 

 work, but the works also of Dr. Fleming and Professor 

 Nilsson have so recorded it. 



Dr. Fleming, in his History of British Animals, has de- 

 scribed, under the term B. galerita, a species of Blenny, 

 obtained in Loch Broome, which differs but little from the 

 specimen obtained by Dr. Johnston in Berwick Bay ; and 

 Professor Nilsson, in his Prodromus of the Fish of Scandina- 

 via, which has been frequently quoted, has described also 

 as the B. galerita of Linnaeus a fish occurring among sea- 

 weed on the coast of Norway, and living on crustaceous and 

 molluscous animals. His description,* though short, bears 



* As this useful little book may not be in the possession of many, I here add 

 the description referred to : " Bl. tentaculis duobus supraciliaribus ramosis ; 

 radiis pinnae ventralis tribus ; capite superius barbato ; corpore rutilo, macnlis 

 10 12 dilutioribus rotundis ad latera dorsi. Obs. Alia specimina furviora 

 sunt et maculis dorsi dilutioribus carent. In aliis exemplis spinae 3 4, dor- 

 sales anteriores ceteres sunt longiores et appendicibus crassis ramosis or- 

 natae ; in aliis haa spins breviores sunt et appendicibus simplicibus, gracilibus 

 terminantur." 



