RANICEPS.] PISCES (OSSEI) MALACOPT. 453 



LENGTH. Eleven inches and a half. PENN. Eighteen inches and 

 a half. BORLASE. 



DESCRIPT. Greatest depth (in a specimen eleven inches and a half 

 long) three inches : head sloping down to the nose as in the rest of the 

 Gadidce: mouth large: besides the teeth in the jaws, a triangular con- 

 geries of small teeth in the roof of the mouth : at the end of the lower 

 jaw a small beard: first dorsal triangular; the first ray* extending far 

 beyond the rest, and very slender: second dorsal commencing just behind 

 the first, and extending almost to the tail : ventrals three inches long ; 

 consisting of only two rays, joined at the bottom, and separated or bifur- 

 cated towards the end : vent in the middle of the body : anal extending 

 from thence t just to the tail: lateral line incurvated: tail rounded. 

 Colour cinereous brown. PENN. Number of fin-rays, 



D. 1062; A. 56; P. 12. FLEM. 



First obtained by Mr. Jago from the coast of Cornwall, where it has 

 been since observed by Mr. Couch. According to this last gentleman, it 

 keeps in deep water, and is not common : is called by the Cornish fisher- 

 men a Hakes Dame. Pennant's specimen was taken on the shores of 

 Flintshire. It has also occurred near St. Andrew's in Scotland %. Obs. 

 The specific character of this fish given above from Cuvier, is requisite in 

 order to distinguish it from a nearly allied species found in the Mediter- 

 ranean, (P. Mediterraneus, Laroche,) in which the first dorsal is round, 

 and not elevated above the second, and the ventrals nearly of the same 

 length with the head. According to Cuvier, it is this last species, which 

 is the Blennius Phycis of Linnaeus, and not the one described and figured 

 by Pennant, as supposed by many of our English authors. 



GEN. 53. RANICEPS, Cuv. 

 140. R. trifurcatus, Flem. (Tadpole-Fish.) 



R. trifurcatus, Flem. Brit. An. p. 194. Blennius trifurcatus, Turt. 

 Brit. Faun. p. 93. Trifurcated Hake, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. 

 p. 196. pi. 32. Trifurcated Tadpole-Fish, Id. (Edit. 1812.) vol. in. 

 p. 272. pi. 38. 



LENGTH. From eight to twelve inches. DAVIES. 



DESCRIPT. (Form.) Head depressed and very broad: eyes large: 

 mouth very wide, with irregular rows of incurvated teeth ; in the roof of 

 the mouth likewise a congeries of teeth : no tongue, a broad abrupt rudi- 

 ment only supplying the defect : body compressed, but remarkably so as 

 it approaches the tail: above the pectoral fins, on each side, a row of 

 tubercles, nine or ten in number, from the last of which commences the 

 lateral line, which descends in a curved direction at the middle, and from 

 thence continues straight to the tail : first dorsal placed in a furrow, rudi- 

 mentary, consisting of three slender feeble rays easily overlooked : second 

 dorsal reaching almost to the tail, with sixty-two rays : anal correspond- 

 ing, with fifty-nine: caudal rounded, with thirty-six: pectorals also 

 rounded, with twenty-three: ventrals with six rays, the last three of 

 which are very slender and short, and the whole connected by a very 

 delicate membrane. 



D. 362; A. 59; C. 36; P. 23; V. 6. 



* According to Nilsson, it is the third ray which is so much elongated beyond the others, 

 t According to Mr. Couch, " a few spines are placed before the anal fin." 

 $ Wern. Mem. vol. vi. p. 569. 



