SHANNY. 231 



creep into convenient holes, rarely more than one in each, 

 and there, with the head outward, they wait for a few hours, 

 until the return of the water restores them to liberty. If 

 discovered or alarmed in these chambers, they retire by a 

 backward motion to the bottom of the cavity. These cir- 

 cumstances shoAv that the Shanny is retentive of life ; in 

 confirmation of which I have known it continue lively 

 after a confinement of thirty hours in a dry box, notwith- 

 standing which it soon expires in fresh water." 



Furnished with long and firm incisor teeth, the Shanny 

 is able to separate from the rocks, muscles, limpets, &c. on 

 which to feed. The spawn is deposited in summer, and 

 soon comes to life. 



The head is rounded over the eyes, descending from 

 thence rapidly to the nose ; between the eyes a deep groove ; 

 the irides scarlet, no appendages either to the orbit or eye- 

 lids ; the nostril pierced in a depression, with a small fim- 

 briated membrane above it, a narrow oblong aperture on each 

 side in front of the edge of the orbit ; the mouth small, 

 angular, much the widest at the gape, the lips large, broad, 

 the posterior angle on each side free ; the teeth small, a 

 single row in each jaw, with occasionally a longer tooth pro- 

 jecting above the rest ; the cheeks tumid ; the gill-aperture 

 large, the membrane continuing unattached, and extending 

 under the throat to the other side. 



The number of fin-rays arc as follows — 



D. 31 : P. 13 : V. 2. : A. 19 : C. 11. 



The dorsal fin commences on a line over the union of 

 the operculum with the body, the first portion consisting of 

 twelve rays, the last of which is the shortest, the thirteenth 

 as long again as the twelfth, forming the interruption ; 

 eighteen others succeed, nearly equal in height, the last of 



