268 ACANTHOPTERYGII. FAMILY OF GOBIES. 



Scotland, and Swine-jish of Orkney. (PI. XIX.) 

 This great fish of the northern seas was first brought 

 under notice in the year 1560 ; received its name of 

 Wolf-fish from the inhabitants of Heliogoland, and 

 has since been regularly noticed by all northern 

 Naturalists : its Scotch name is derived from the 

 resemblance of its head and face to the feline race, 

 and its Orkney appellation from a particular move- 

 ment of its nostrils. Eggede mentions it in Green- 

 land, and M. Gaimard and others in Iceland : it 

 abounds on the shores of Norway, Sweden, Den- 

 mark, and in the Baltic. It is but rarely seen on the 

 English coast, except tow r ards the north ; is common 

 on the Scottish, and is occasionally seen on the Irish. 

 Its ordinary length is three or four feet, and it 

 ranges upwards to about twice that size. The 

 strength of its teeth and power of jaws enables it 

 to bite and grind with the greatest force. Hence 

 Steller saw one break with ease the blade of a knife 

 he put between its teeth ; and it is for the devour- 

 ing of its food, consisting of crabs and other shell- 

 fish, as well as common fish, that it is endowed with 

 those strong weapons, so w r ell represented in Mr. 

 Yarrell's wood-cut. The upper parts of the body, 

 including the dorsal fin, are of a lightish grey colour, 

 marked with six or eight broad vertical bands of 

 bluish grey, and the lower parts are usually white : 

 the young are of a greenish cast. This fish is not 

 viviparous; and the female deposits her ova on 

 marine plants, in the months of May and June, in 

 Iceland. It usually swims rather slowly, and with 



