BLENNIES. 493 



The "Sea-wolf," or "Sea-cat" (A. Iwpus), is a gigantic 



Fig. 224. — Teeth of the Wolf-fish, Anarrhichas hcpus. 



Blenny, attaining to a length of more than six feet. With 

 its enormously strong tubercular teeth it is able to crush the 

 hardest shells of Crustaceans or Mollusks, on which it feeds 

 voraciously. It is an inhabitant of the northern seas, like 

 two other allied species, all of which are esteemed as food by 

 the inhabitants of Iceland and Greenland. Two other species 

 of Sea-wolves occur in the corresponding latitudes of the 

 North Pacific. 



Blennius. — Body moderately elongate, naked ; snout short. 

 A single dorsal, without detached portion ; ventrals jugular, 

 formed by a spine and two rays. Cleft of the mouth narrow ; 

 a single series of immovable teeth in the jaws ; generally a 

 curved tooth behind this series in both jaws, or in the lower 

 only. A more or less developed tentacle above the orbit. Gill- 

 opening wide. 



About forty species of Blennius (in the restricted generic 

 sense) are known from the northern temperate zone, the 

 tropical Atlantic, Tasmania, and the Bed Sea. But in the 

 tropical Indian Ocean they are almost entirely absent, and 

 replaced by other allied genera. Three species, found near 

 the Sandwich Islands, are immigrants into the Pacific from 

 the American Continent. They generally live on the coast, 

 or attach themselves to floating objects, some species leading 

 a pelagic life, hiding themselves in floating seaweed, in 



