OVO-VIVIPAROUS FISHES. 65 



truded. The able author of the elaborate work on 

 Fishes in the Cabinet Cyclopaedia asserts, that ail 

 the blennies his Blennidce are " altogether vivi- 

 parous/' In his arrangement, this tribe or family is 

 very numerous, and he states repeatedly that they 

 all have this peculiarity. (See Yol. ii. 10, 11, 182). 

 According to his own subsequent showing, however, 

 this statement is incorrect, his Blennophis being ovi- 

 parous (Ib. 276); and hence the assertion, from 

 affirming too much, possesses little or no value. But 

 besides, the assertion directly contravenes the posi- 

 tive statement of many naturalists. M. Valenciennes, 

 respecting the sub-family Blennoides^ of the great 

 work upon Fishes (agreeing generally with that of 

 the Cyclopaedia), remarks, " Although I have exa- 

 mined a vast number of the females, nothing has 

 led me to conclude that these Blennies are vivi- 

 parous." Of a Gattoruginous Blenny Mr. Couch 

 remarks (apud Yarr., i. 257), " at the end of May 

 I have found it large with roe, some of a mulberry, 

 and others of a leaden colour; and M. Risso ex- 

 pressly affirms, that the females of certain kinds 

 have their ovaries full with more than a thousand 

 ova, differently coloured and spotted, which they 

 deposit towards the end of spring, or during sum- 

 mer." -(Cuv. & Yal., xi. p. 147.) We fear the 

 objection equally applies to the same author's state- 

 ment respecting the Loaches, his Cobitidce, a large 

 family of the soft-rayed or Malacopterygeous group, 

 which he also alleges is entirely viviparous. (Ut. 

 ant., i. 360 : ii 10> 190 309V Be this however as 



