234 yarrell's blenny. 



which are shot in the ground it frequents among rocks and 

 stones. There can be no doubt but that it enters these pots 

 for the sake of the bait; but there have been found in its 

 stomach the worms which inhabit tubes, fTuhicolce,) and also 

 the sponge, f Ilalichondria carnosa.J 



An example of Yarrell's Blenny, taken in the middle of 

 July, measured in length seven inches and a quarter, which 

 appears to be the largest size to which it grows. Its greatest 

 depth, exclusive of the fins, was one inch and an eighth. The 

 front of the head drops suddenly from the eyes to the mouth; 

 cheeks full; lips tumid; the lower jaws a little the longest; teeth 

 regular, closely set, and small. Eyes near each other, and 

 high on the head; between them and the lip a slender process, 

 and on the upper part of the head in front two elevated 

 processes, which are tipped with a tuft of fibrils; also imme- 

 diately above the eyes a pair of much longer branched processes, 

 nearly three fourths of an inch in length, the branches being 

 on the top and posterior border. Separate fine threads along 

 the nape to near the dorsal fin; in a rather deep depression 

 between the anterior and longest processes is a pair of nasal 

 orifices. The belly is protuberant; the body compressed, and 

 its breadth diminished but little as it approaches the tail; 

 covered with fine scales, each marked with a pale rim of 

 colour. Lateral lines two, the uppermost taking its beginning 

 from a row of pores, which pass backward from the superior 

 bound of the cheek, and it soon disappears. The dorsal fin 

 single, even, and joined to the root of the tail; first rays 

 longest, and the tip of the first with a double tuft of tendrils, 

 — a slight formation of the same on the second ray, — fifty rays 

 in all. Anal fin from the vent to the tail, with thirty-five 

 rays. Tail round, the rays sixteen. Pectoral wide and round, 

 with fourteen rays. The ventral fin had three soft rays, and 

 in other examples these rays have not only varied from two 

 to four, but the rays themselves were branched, contrary to 

 what is found in the true Blennies, with short and heavy 

 bodies. The colour of this example was an uniform reddish 

 brown, lighter on the belly. 



When this fish dies it is with a spasm which tends to distort 

 the head and neck. A description and figure are therefore 

 added of an example that was kept alive. In this condition 



