TOMPOT. 281 



Its singular palmate and branching horns, remotely 

 resembling those of the fallow-deer, at once shew it 

 to be the Gattorugine, another fish of the same family. 

 Fleming, in his British Animals (p. 206), speaks of 

 it as British only on the authority of two specimens, 

 one recorded by Pennant, found near Anglesea, and 

 another mentioned by Montagu, as taken in a crab- 

 pot on the south-east coast of Devon. Yarrell, how- 

 ever, adduces other examples ; and on the authority 

 of Mr Couch, speaks of it as common in Cornwall, 

 where it goes by the name of " Tompot." " Tompot," 

 then, from henceforth, he shall answer to with us ; 

 for hereabout it is one of the most familiarly abundant 

 of species, when searched-for as I am describing; and 

 "Gattorugine" is too recondite a barbarism for the 

 appellation of so everyday a subject as this. So, ela- 

 borate dandy as he is, " Tompot" shall be his name. 

 Be quiet now, Tompot ! be still a moment, that we 

 may solace our eyes with your beauty ! 



Beauty, forsooth ! A more hideous " varmint" you 

 will scarcely see, notwithstanding his gay attire and 

 his jewellery for he wears both. What a face he 

 has ! His head is thin and high, with a profile de- 

 scending, I will not say perpendicularly, but, indeed, 

 not very far removed from it ; a mouth opening with 

 a most repulsively impudent expression ; two large, 

 prominent rolling eyes, of which the colour changes 

 notably while you look at them, now being partly 

 dark and partly white, abruptly divided by a trans- 

 verse line, then the whole rapidly becoming suffused 



