178 SCORP.ENID.E. 



occupies the place precisely, which its allies, the Father-lasher {Cottus 

 huhalis, Euphr.) and Sea-scorpion (^Cottus scorpius, Bl.), fill on our Bri- 

 tish shores. It appears, however, more strictly confined to the immediate 

 neighbourhood of rocks than either of these European species ; for I 

 have never seen it taken in a net worked upon any sort of beach. It 

 is, indeed, merely caught by boys for their amusement ; biting readily at 

 a hook baited with a crushed Periwinkle, Trochus, or Limpet ; and is 

 not often used for food. Its second Portuguese name of " Papa-Jaca," 

 or Suck-Jack, it has earned by its troublesome addiction to hooks baited 

 with the little crab called " Jaca"" (Grapsus varius, Latr.) ; and hence, 

 although its teeth appear ill-suited for the purpose, and that it also may 

 be captured with a fish-bait, its more favourite food plainly consists of 

 the hard-shelled molluscous or crustaceous animals. 



In differing from authority so high as that of MM. Cuvier and Va- 

 lenciennes regarding the generic allocation of this fish, I do but follow 

 the example which these authors have themselves afforded in the case 

 of a nearly allied species of the Indian Archipelago, their Seb. minutus^ 

 Hist. iv. 348, in considering the presence of true scales upon the head, 

 opercles, and cheeks, decisive of the question. Indeed this character 

 affords the only safe and practically useful mark of distinction between 

 Scorp^ena and Sebastes. A greater degree of armour, and a redun- 

 dancy of the fleshy lacinise, might at first appear to favour MM. Cu- 

 vier and Valenciennes'* position of the Madeiran fish ; especially if the 

 two genera were compared only in their respective types, Scorpacna 

 Scrofa, L., and Sebastes novegicus, or imperialism Cuvier : but when 

 we take a wider view, these characters are found to be subordinate ; as 

 these authors have themselves virtually acknowledged, by placing in Se- 

 bastes their own species, ^S*. minutus, and S. Bougainvillii. I might 

 refer, in further illustration of this view, to the Madeiran Sebastes Kuhlii, 

 t. xvii. ; which, with the head almost as distinctly scaly as in the typical Seb. 

 imperialism Cuv., has it even more conspicuously armed than in Scor- 

 p(£na Scrofa, L, : whilst, on the other hand, we find placed in Scor- 

 pa:na a fish (^Sc. inermis, Cuv. and Val.), of which it is remarked " que 

 les epines et les cretes de sa tete, d'ailleurs les memes en nombre que 

 dans le Scrofa ou le Porous, sont tellement effacees, qu'il faut de Tat- 

 tention pour les remarquer." * And as to fleshy lacinise, it has " tres- 

 peu sur le corps, et aucuns sur la tete :" whilst in Sc. porous they are 

 also " infinimcnt moins nombreux" than in Sc. Scrofa on the head ; 

 there arc absolutely none upon the sides of the body ; and " scarcely 

 any, and those very small, on the lateral line." Hence I think it Avill 

 sufficiently appear, that in resting mainly the distinctions between the 



* Cuv. and Val. iv. 31.1. 



