362 WORM PIl'EFISH. 



be nourished, and therefore shrink into nothing in the same 

 manner as the tails of frogs are known to cease to exist. The 

 gill openings are large and not bound down by membrane. 



This fish does not exceed five or six inches in length, the 

 body round, and of much less size than an ordinary quill, 

 tapering to a point from the vent to the extremity; smooth, 

 and with little appearance of separate j^lates. Eye near the 

 toj) of the head, the snout turned ujDward in something of an 

 arched form; nostrils close in front of the eye. The colour is 

 various in different examples; in some quite black, with a row 

 of pale whitish spots along the back, which near the head are 

 distant from each other, but closer together near the tail. In 

 some the colour is of various shades of brown, the cheeks 

 mottled with defined patches of pale yellow ; which are also on 

 the first plates of the body; lines, which appear to separate the 

 plates, punctured with dots of pale blue. 



