YELLOW SKULPIN. 175 



peciiHar manner of feeding, but it proceeds from the fact that 

 at the depth of water in which it usually keeps, the hooks 

 employed by fishermen are too large for its mouth. It is more 

 likely to be dragged from the bottom by a trawl, and it is 

 not unfrequently found in the stomachs of the larger fishes 

 that take their prey from the ground, which is its appropriate 

 resting-place, and on which its flattened shape enables it to 

 recline with ease. In this situation also the size and position 

 of its ventral fins afford it support, while, by a very slight 

 motion in them, it is able to raise itself in an instant for 

 escape, or to seize any object it wishes to devour. The food 

 is laid hold of by a thrusting forward of the upper jaw, the 

 intermaxillary bone of which is capable of being protruded 

 through a portion of a circle, and thus of grasping an object 

 from below as Avell as from above, for the lower jaw as well 

 as the upper has an extensive motion. It is probable that the 

 balancing power of the extended rays of the first dorsal fin 

 may be of service in the sudden and rapid actions of the fish 

 when it rises from or descends to its plaoe of rest at the 

 bottom. 



The Yellow Skulpin is knov/n through the extent of all the 

 coasts of the British Islands, at least as far as the Orkneys; 

 and it is also found along the coasts of the North Sea and 

 the Cattegat, but it is not met with in the Baltic. It does 

 not appear to be in the habit of congregating into companies, 

 and seldom comes very near to the land; but it prefers to 

 remain at the depth of from twenty to sixty fathoms, at least 

 on the western borders of the kingdom. It is observed that it 

 does not die speedily when taken from the water, which 

 probably arises from the remarkable construction of its gills, 

 through which the stream can only find a passage through an 

 opening of small size, the direction of which is well fitted to 

 a creature which rests habitually on the ground, and the 

 breathing of which would be with difliculty if the aperture 

 were open only on the under side. 



The example selected for description measured in length ten 

 inches and a half, and an inch and three fourths across where 

 widest, which was above the gills; head depressed, becoming 

 narrower and rounded to the upper lip, which protrudes 

 beyond the lower jaw, which is narrow; the teeth fine and 



