CHAP. xvi. COUCHIA EDWARDIL 345 



Motella and Couchia ; and it is this, again, we are able to 

 supply through the persevering diligence of Mr. Edward, 

 whose intelligence enabled him to detect the existence of 

 another species, and whose kindness has, with an example, 

 communicated materials which enable the writer to produce, 

 with a satisfactory likeness, a somewhat extended notice of 

 its actions, the latter of which will be described, as far as can 

 be, in this attentive observer's own words. The length of 

 the example from which my notes were taken is an inch and 

 five-eighths ; and as half a dozen others were about the same 

 size, it may be judged to be their usual magnitude, as it does 

 not differ much also from that of C. glauca and C. Montagui. 

 Compared with the latter, its shape is more slender, the 

 pectoral fin rather more lengthened and pointed, the ventral 

 fins longer and slender, the cilia on the back, along the edge 

 of the membrane, more extended, apparently more numerous, 

 and very fine ; barb on the lower jaw long ; but what espe- 

 cially marks this little fish as distinct from the other species 

 is, that, besides the pair of barbs in front of the head, there 

 is a single one of much larger size in front of the upper lip, 

 and which points directly forward with a slight inclination 

 downward, thus analogically answering to the middle barb 

 that projects from the snout of the four-bearded Rockling 

 (Motella cimbria). It is probable that there are teeth in the 

 jaws, but they can scarcely be seen, and there is a row of 

 pores along each border of the superior maxillary bone. 

 Some further particulars of this fish I prefer to give in the 

 words of its discoverer, who describes its colour as a beautiful 

 deep green along the back when caught, the sides brilliantly 

 white ; but when it reached me, preserved in spirit, it was 

 blue, with a tinge of the same along the lateral line. In some 

 examples in Mr. Edward's possession the colour on the back 

 was a faint yellow, with a narrow stripe of bluish purple OK 

 the side, and in all of them the silvery hue of the lower por- 

 tions of the bodv is found to rise nearer the back than in the 



