660 SUPPLEMENT ON 



to the generic character of myxine, stated in the text, that 

 Sir Everard Home, in the Transactions of the Royal Society 

 for 1815, has published an interesting description of the 

 organs of respiration of this animal, from a specimen in Sir 

 Joseph Banks's collection ; that these organs resemble those of 

 the lamprey as to the number of branchial openings, seven, 

 but they approximate in other respects to the corresponding 

 organs of myxine. 



The Gastrobranchus catcus, Bl. The glutinous hag does 

 not exceed a foot in length, the back is blue, the sides reddish, 

 and the belly white. Its soft and extensible lips enable it 

 to fix itself to bodies, and are so disposed that the circular 

 mouth represents a sort of cupping glass, so much the more 

 certain in its operation of adhesion, as it has a hook to the 

 upper lip. The body has on each side a row of small 

 openings, from which the mucus spoken of in the text as 

 peculiar to the genus is exuded. 



This fish lives principally in the north of the European sea 

 as far as Greenland. It is quite blind, and generally lies 

 concealed in the mud and sand. It often seizes on the softest 

 parts of the large fish, and fixing itself there, lives by suck- 

 ing their juices like the leech, and it is said that they will 

 sometimes introduce themselves into the viscera like the 

 intestinal worms, but this is not verified, nor is it probable ; 

 the similarity of this fish, in common with the other Suctorii, 

 to the worms, in all probability induced the statement. 



Of the last subdivision of these curious fish, enough on the 

 peculiarities of structure may have been said in the text, 

 we shall only add, therefore, that they are very active by 

 means of their singular mouths in digging into the mud to 

 hide themselves there for days together ; when not able to 

 do this, they fall to the bottom, and in general soon become 

 the prey of pike, perch, &c. Most of them are destitute of 

 eyes, or have those organs in a merely rudimentary state 



