THE FOUR-BEARDED ROCKLING. 449 



The following new British fish was obtained after the 

 preceding sheets had passed through the press ; it holds a 

 rank in the genus Motella. See page 353. 



MOTELLA CIMBRIA.* ThE FoUR-BEARDED RoCKLING, 



Specific Characters. — Snout with three barbules^ and one on the 

 chin. (Plate XLIV.) 



Descrijdion. — From a specimen fourteen inches in length. Form 

 closely resembling that of the Five-bearded Rockling', but the length 

 of the head somewhat greater compared to that of the bodj'. Body 

 elongated, rounded in front,, compressed behind^ tapering from the 

 vent to the caudal extremity ; greatest depth less than the length of 

 the head. Head one-sixth of the entire length, caudal fin included, 

 slightly depressed ; snout blunt, projecting considerably beyond the 

 under jaw ; eye large, of an oval form, placed high up, and about 

 its own length from the point of the snout ; operculum rounded, 

 oblique ; gill-opening large ; gape wide ; maxilkay extending in a 

 line with the posterior margin of the orbit ; teeth sharp and fine, si- 

 tuated in two rows in the under jaw, and in five rows in the upper ; 

 a few are also placed in a cluster on the anterior part of the vomer ; 

 barbules {our, one a little in front of each nostril, one at the extremity 

 of the upper lip, and one on the chin ; tongue fleshy, smooth, and 

 without teeth. Fins, — First dorsal obsolete, scarcely discernible, 

 commencing over the operculum, and terminating a little in front of 

 the second dorsal, composed of a number of short, fine, cajjillary 

 rays, of which the first is the largest, presenting an appearance, ac- 

 cording to Linnoeus, of the letter T, but this latter character I was 

 unable to recognise in the present example, owing to that ray having 

 been somewhat destroyed previously to the fish coming into mj- pos- 

 session ; second dorsal taking its origin in a line over the ends of the 

 pectorals, and terminating a little in advance of the caudal, the an- 

 terior portion nearly of equal height, the raj-s in the posterior half, 

 more sensibly increasing in length to the last but four, from thence 

 rapidly diminishing, the first ray simple, the rest branched ; anal, 

 commencing in a line under the twelfth ray of the second dorsal, and 

 ending under the last ray but three of the same fin, in form similar 

 to the second dorsal, but the rays scarcely more than one-half the 

 length, the first ray simple, the rest branched ; caudal rounded at the 

 extremity, the length of the middle rays equalling the space between 

 the first and twelfth rays of the anal, the lateral rays simple ; veu- 

 trals jugular, the second rays the longest, about two-thirds tlie length 

 of the pectorals ; pectorals rovmded at the extremities, equalling the 



* Gadus cimhriiis, Linnaeus. 

 VOL. VTI. F f 



