GEX. BLENNICS. GATT0RUG1N0US BLENNY. 257 



smaller fishes, cnistacea, and sea- weeds, and is in 

 no esteem as food. Four specimens have been 

 taken in the British seas, three by Colonel Monta- 

 gue, in 1814, who first catalogued it as British, and 

 one by Mr. Yarrell, which was captured in the 

 Isle of Portland. The Colonel examined one in the 

 living state, but it did not survive the day, though 

 the vessel in which it was lodged was frequently 

 replenished with sea-water, so different was it from 

 the Shanny, to which attention will speedily be di- 

 rected. The head is round and blunt, the teeth in 

 a sinole row ; attached to the anterior edoe of the 

 orbit, are two large and fimbriated appendages, 

 about half an inch in length ; the skin about the 

 head is loose, and studded with warty papillae. The 

 general colour is pale brown, with patches of reddish 

 brown ; the spot on the dorsal fin, between the 

 sixth and eighth rays, is of a dark red-brown colour, 

 with a slight indication of light brown around it. 



(Sp. 68.) B. gatforugine. The Gattoruginous 

 Blenny superabounds in the Mediterranean ; but is 

 also more common than the preceding in European 

 seas, and among the rest in the British Channel, 

 where, however, it is of smaller dimensions. Mr. 

 Couch frequently finds it off the coast of Cornwall ; 

 Colonel Montague considered it rare on the Devon- 

 shire shore ; Pennant mentions its being taken in 

 Anglesey, and others mention its occurrence at Bel- 

 fast. The forehead of this species slopes considerably, 

 and a groove runs along the vertex ; the branched 

 fimbriated filaments, which are conspicuous and orna- 



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