BIB. 71 



into a bladder, and even the dorsal fins are often distended in 

 the same manner. It appears to be caused from the terror of 

 the fish, by the agony of which the air of the swimming bladder 

 is driven into these membranous parts; and it is this circum- 

 stance, which in a less degree may be observed in other fishes, 

 that appears to have given occasion to some of the names by 

 which the Bib has been designated. 



In shape this fish is the deepest of the British sj)ecies of its 

 family in proportion to its length, which does not often exceed 

 a foot, although it sometimes exceeds this measure by a few 

 inches. I have known it to weigh four pounds. The head and 

 body are compressed, snout short and blunt, gape moderate, under 

 jaw slightly the shortest, teeth in both, and in the palate; barb 

 at the lower jaw. Eye rather large, not far from the snout: 

 nostrils in a depression before them. The outline rises at first 

 in a rounded form from the snout to the origin of the first dorsal 

 fin, and does not begin to descend until it has reached the second 

 dorsal, from which it slopes gradually to the tail. The greatest 

 depth is at the vent, which is nearer the front than a third of 

 the whole length, and almost under the root of the pectoral fin. 

 Scales small, and easily lost: lateral line high at first, sloping 

 down opposite the end of the pectoral fin. The first dorsal fin 

 rises to a point, long enough to overlap a portion of the second. 

 Pectorals pointed; tail slightly concave; first ray of the ventrals 

 long and slender, reaching beyond the vent. Colour of the 

 back reddish brown or dusky yellow; sides coppery, and so 

 also in some instances the belly, sometimes also with irregular 

 dusky shades. Not unfrequently the sides are marked with bands 

 of a deeper colour. A black spot at the origin of the pectoral 

 fin. A border sometimes light coloured, sometimes dark, round 

 the extremity of the tail. 



