FISHES AND SEA-SQUIRTS. 301 



Before leaving the saithe, we may note that the most 

 inexperienced housewife can distinguish it at a glance from 

 the cod, by the fact that while the latter has a long process, 

 or barbule, beneath the chin, the saithe has the merest trace 

 of one (see Fig. 85, b). There are other striking differences, 

 but this is the most readily observed, and is worth note, 

 because if cod is not a particularly attractive article of diet, 

 a full-grown saithe is very much less so. 



Having gathered some general idea of the characters of 

 fishes from an examination of the saithe or one of its 

 relatives, such as the cod, haddock, or whiting, we may 

 glance at the characters of some of the common rock- 

 haunting forms. 



Wherever the pools contain weed and stones one may be 

 sure of finding at least one species of Coitus, little fish 



FIG. 86.- Sea-scorpion, or bullhead (Coitus scorpius). After Day. 



belonging to the same family as the gurnet, and much feared 

 by children on account of their spines and a tradition that 

 they are capable of stinging. Two species are common, the 

 sea-scorpion (see Fig. 86) and the father-lasher, or lucky 

 proach, the former being usually from about six inches to a 

 foot in length, and the latter usually only a few inches, 

 though it has been found to attain a length of a foot or 

 more. In both cases the head is broad and large, curiously 

 disproportionate to the narrow, tapering body, and bears a 

 very wide mouth, always eager for food. The head is 

 flattened above, so that the eyes are in its upper surface 

 instead of the sides, as in the saithe, and the margin of this 

 flat head is furnished with spines borne on a plate called the 

 preoperculum. In addition to these, other spines ornament 

 other parts of the body, especially the head, but the skin is 

 otherwise soft and scaleless. The gill-cover seems at first 



