64 INTRODUCTION. 



containing upwards of twenty species, mostly deni- 

 zens of tropical seas. The Mediterranean species is 

 a small fish of about three inches in length, whilst 

 the one so common at the Cape — C. superciliosus — 

 reaches to fourteen ; and regarding its viviparous na 

 ture, Baron Cuvier was thoroughly satisfied. From 

 the similarity of structure, the authors of L' Hist 

 Nat. des Poissons infer, what was not previously 

 suspected, that the whole genus partakes of this pe- 

 culiarity, although it has not in every case been esta 

 blished by direct examination. These Naturalists, 

 however, have examined the structure of some, and 

 have discovered a well-marked external reproduc- 

 tive apparatus. In the genus Zoarchus^ again, to 

 which the well-known Viviparous Blenny belongs, 

 the apparatus of the Clinus is no longer discoverable, 

 and the male can scarcely be distinguished, by the 

 most minute external examination; whilst inter- 

 nally the vasa deferentia of the milt gland corres- 

 pond exactly with what is found in Oviparous 

 fishes ; and no external apparatus can be perceived 

 in creatures whose method of reproduction is so 

 remarkable. The Viviparous Blenny, just named, 

 is perhaps the fish which of all others has been 

 longest and best known as belonging to the group. 

 The young are so matured at the time of birth, that 

 on their first exclusion they swim about with the 

 utmost agility. Two or three hundred are some- 

 times produced by one individual, and the abdomen 

 is so distended before parturition, that it is impos- 

 sible to touch it without causing them to be ex- 



