GEN. COTTUS. FATHER-LASHER. 155 



larger, forming an important article of food, the 

 soup made from it being both agreeable and whole- 

 some. 



(Sp. 23). C. quadricomis. The Four-horned 

 Cottus. We are indebted to Mr. Yarrell for the in- 

 troduction of this species into the Catalogue of 

 British fishes, a specimen having been communicated 

 to him by Mr. Gray of the British Museum. It 

 has been taken in the north-east coast of England, 

 and is occasionally sold in the London market, be- 

 ing caught and sold with spratts. It has long been 

 known as an inhabitant of the Baltic, and Pallas 

 describes it as common in Lake Baikal, and in the 

 rivers of the Northern Ocean, where it attains the 

 length of a foot, being somewhat larger than its usual 

 size in this country. Pallas also states that the 

 young are without horns ; that first one pair appears, 

 and finally another. It spawns in winter, and the 

 ova are white. 



Gen. XI. Aspidophorus. — This genus was sepa- 

 rated from the foregoing by Bloch, and received 

 its present appellation from Lacepede. Its most 

 striking difference consists in the fish belonging to 

 it being furnished with a cuirasse formed by a suc- 

 cession of large bony plates, which extend from the 

 neck to the tail, and in its having no teeth at the 

 extremity of the vomer or the palatines. Nine 

 or ten species have now been discovered ; one only, 

 however, is British, and has been long known. 

 It is 



(Sp. 24.) A. Europceus of Cuvier, The Armed 



