468 THE FOUR-HORNED COITUS. 



the exception of the Hiver Bull-head (C Gobio), is the 

 smallest of the j^-enus Cottus, its usual length being from 

 four to five inches. The sexes differ somewhat in form 

 and colour. As with the Sea-Scorpion, the male is rather 

 less than the female ; and in appearance, manner of 

 feeding, &c., it assimilates closely to that fish. It lives 

 chiefly on small crustaceans. Kroyer found its stomach 

 full of a species of Idotea. According to Ekstrom and 

 B. Fries, this fish spawns at the end of November and in 

 December, but Kroyer supposes somewhat earlier. " At 

 this time," we are told, " nature has lavished on it colours 

 so surpassingly beautiful, that it is impossible sufficiently 

 to admire or for the pencil to delineate them." Excepting 

 as bait, the fishermen set little store on this fish, and either 

 throw it away or give it to the pigs. 



The Cottus tricuspis, Beiuh. [Taggrenig Siwpa, Sw. ; 

 implying that the preoperculum is armed with branched 

 spines). This rare fish was not known in our Skiirgard, 

 but has been taken on the northern and north-western 

 coasts of Norway. It is described as from eight to nine 

 inches in length, and is said much to resemble in form 

 the Sea-Scorpion, tliough the body is more tapering and 

 the head shorter in proportion. 



The Eour-horned Cottus {Horn-Simpa, Sw. ; C. quadri- 

 cornis, Linn.). This fish was unknown to us on the 

 western coast, but it is found in the Baltic, as far south 

 at least as the island of Gotland, and as high up as the 

 Gulf of Bothnia. It is distinguished as a species by the 

 rough tubercles on its head, and hence its name. Pallas 

 was of opinion that these warty excrescences were 

 confined to adults, and wanting in those of less than nine 

 inches in length ; but Swedish ichthyologists, though 

 admitting that the warts are not apparent in very young 

 fish, conceive that they shoot forth at a much earlier 

 period, and instance having seen specimens only three 



