378 PISCES (OSSEI) ACANTHOPT. [BLENNIUS. 



GEN. 27. BLENNIUS, Linn. 



(1. BLENNIUS, Cuv.) 

 * Head with two or more tentaculiform appendages. 



53. B. ocellaris, Bl. (Ocellated Blenny.) Head with 

 two principal appendages : dorsal bilobated ; the anterior 

 lobe much elevated, marked with an ocellated spot. 



B. ocellaris, Block, Ichth. pi. 167. f. 1. Mont, in Wern. Mem. 

 vol. ii. p. 443. pi. 22. f. 2. Flem. Brit. An. p. 206. Butterfly- 

 Fish, Will. Hist. Pise. p. 131. tab. H. 3. f. 2. Ocellated Blenny, 

 or Butterfly-Fish, Yarr. Brit. Fish. vol. i. p. 223. Le Blennie 

 papillon, Guv. Reg. An. torn. n. p. 237. 



LENGTH. From four to six inches. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Sides much coiiipressed : greatest depth contained 

 three times and a half in the whole length, caudal excluded : thickness 

 rather more than half the depth : head rounded anteriorly, very obtuse ; 

 snout short; profile nearly vertical: jaws equal: teeth numerous, closely 

 compacted, the last in the series on each side above and below hooked, and 

 longer than the others : eyes large, high on the cheeks ; the space between 

 narrow and concave : above each eye a narrow tentaculiform appendage, 

 slightly branched on its posterior margin, equalling in length one-third 

 that of the head ; considerably behind the eyes, on each side of the occi- 

 put, a minute membranaceous flap: lateral line proceeding from the upper 

 angle of the opercle at one-fourth of the depth, but bending suddenly 

 down about the middle of the body, where it alters its course to half the 

 depth : dorsal commencing at the' occiput, and extending very nearly to 

 the caudal, with which, however, it is not continuous, as in the next spe- 

 cies; the first eleven rays soft, but not articulated; first much longer 

 than any of the others, and more than equalling the whole depth of the 

 body ; the succeeding ones gradually decreasing to the eleventh, which 

 is the shortest in the whole fin; beyond the eleventh the rays again 

 lengthen, the twelfth being twice the length of the preceding one ; all 

 the rays in this portion of the fin articulated, but not branched : anal 

 commencing under the twelfth ray of the dorsal, and answering to the pos- 

 terior lobe of that fin ; the two fins terminating exactly in the same line : 

 caudal rounded; rays branched; the two outermost above and below 

 excepted: pectorals the length of the head, slightly pointed; all the 

 rays simple: ventrals one-fourth shorter than the pectorals, narrow 

 and pointed, of three simple rays, the middle one longer than the other 

 two : 



D. 11/15 ; A. 17 ; C. 11, and 2 short ; P. 12 ; V. 3. 



(Colours.) "Pale rufous brown, mixed with bluish gray, and slightly 

 tinged with green in some parts ; the sides of the head, throat, and 

 branchiostegous rays, spotted with rufous brown : the dorsal fin also a 

 little spotted and barred with olive-brown and white ; between the sixth 

 and eighth rays, a roundish purple-black spot, sometimes surrounded 

 with white." MONT. 



First noticed as a British species by Montagu, who obtained three 

 specimens from an oyster-bed at Torcross, on the south coast of Devon, 

 in 1814. A fourth, likewise British, from which the above description 

 was taken, is in the collection of Mr. Yarrell. This last occurred among 

 the rocks of the Island of Portland. In one of Montagu's examples the 



