BLEPHARIS. 



J13 



British shores ; and is known by various local names, 

 such as the " gutter," the " eel-trout," and the " green 

 bdne," the last from the circumstance of the back 

 bone becoming green when the fish is boiled. It is 

 also called the " stone perch.'' though it has none of 

 the characters of the perch family. 



During great part of the year it lurks under stones 

 in the shallows, and especially near the estuaries of 

 rivers ; and it is supposed sometimes not to retire 

 with the tide, but to conceal itself under stones till 

 the water return. When thus in the shallows, it is 

 very frequently seen, and not very difficult to ap- 

 proach ; but if caught, it glides through the fingers 

 with more facility than even the eel, and it is on this 

 account that it is called the eel-trout. In summer, 

 about the time when the wild crucifene come into 

 bloom in the corn-fields, it takes to the water and 

 becomes a swimmer ; but remains in the bays and 

 estuaries as a surface swimmer. It is there readily 

 caught with a baited hook, so much so that it is often 

 an annoyance to those who fish on the grounds which 

 it frequents in the hope of meeting with something 

 better ; as it takes the bait so much more readily 

 than those, that it spoils the sport of the summer 

 fisher in those safe and quiet places. When caught 

 it is of little or no use, as its flesh is meagre and 

 tasteless. It is ovoviviparous ; and the fact of its 

 being so has been long known. 



The blcnnies appear a very useless genus ; but 

 they are curious in their forms, and they hold a 

 particular place among the finny tribes. They are, 

 strictly speaking, shore fishes : yet from the fact of 

 some of them appearing only occasionally upon our 

 shores, it is probable that they are, at some seasons 

 much more discursive than is generally sup]>osed, 

 for at the places where the stragglers are found, there 

 are more in the same settled habitations among the 

 sea weed and stones, as they resort to where they 

 arc known to be resident. 



Of the nearly allied species, many of which have 

 been described as blennies, though they differ from 

 them in their leading characters, some more, some 

 less, there are some which are found in the British 

 seas, and others only in the southern parts of the 

 world. Of these some grow to the length of two or 

 three feet ; but even these arc of little value in an 

 economical point of view. See MYXODES, SALARJAS, 

 CLINGS, CIRUHIBAKBUS, Mriui:xoiDEs, OPHISTO- 

 GNATHUS, and ZOARCIS for the particulars. 



BLEPHARIS. A genus of spinous-finned fishes, 

 belonging to the mackerel tribe, and to the family or 

 sub-division of that tribe, to which Cuvier has given 

 the name of Vomer. The whole of the spinous-finned 

 fishes are very difficult of arrangement, as the form 

 and position of the fins, the usual grounds of arrange- 

 ment in fishes, cannot be so readily applied to them 

 as to the soft-finned ones. The mackerel family are 

 all surface-fishes, rapid swimmers, voracious feeders, 

 altogether very active in their motions, their flesh in 

 general wholesome and agreeable to the taste, but in 

 some of the species rather dry. See SCOMBEUOID^E. 



Linnaeus and Bloch included the whole of the 

 division Vomcr in the genus Zeus (the dory), but 

 Cuvier has separated it, and formed the very various 

 fishes of which it is composed, into six sul>-genera, of 

 which Blcpknr'is is one. The bodies of all these fishes 

 are remarkably compressed ; so much so, that though. 

 when seen from above or below, they do not appear 

 thicker in proportion to the length, than fishes of more 



NAT. HIST. VOL. I. 



ordinary form, they appear very deep when viewed 

 on the side. 



It is worthy of notice that while many of the fishes 

 which remain near the bottom in the shallows or 

 on the banks, have the body so much depressed or 

 flattened, that they get the common name of flat fish ; 

 many of tho.-c which inhabit near the surface have 

 the enlargement in depth, and the compression late- 

 rally. The flat ground fishes are all soft-fiimcd, 

 and have the fins often margining nearly the whole 

 body, and the skin and fins containing a great quan- 

 tity of gelatine ; but they are, in general, not much 

 produced, and no portions of them project far bcvond 

 the rest. In these flat fishes, though the body is 

 depressed as regards the position in which it is usually 

 carried, it is really compressed ; and the lines on which 

 the fins appear, are not the lateral lines of the fish, 

 but the dorsal and ventral lines, in the same manner 

 as those to which the fins of fishes which are not flat, 

 and all the laterally compressed ones, such as the 

 genus under consideration, are attached. 



Thus, the flat fish and the compressed fish are 

 both flattened in the same way with reference to the 

 posterior portion of the spine and the way in which 

 the muscles act in giving motion to the body, only 

 the flat fish carries itself with the greater portion of 

 the body borne with the side under, while the com- 

 pressed fish has the bell}' in that direction. A twist 

 of the head brings the eyes to one side of the body, 

 and gives an oblique position to the mouth, so that, 

 in looking to a sole, a flounder, or a turbot, a line 

 passing through the eyes will be seen to be parallel 

 to the mesial plane of the body, or the plane passing- 

 through the ridge of the back and the centre of the 

 bell3 r , and not at right angles to that bone, as in other 

 fishes, and indeed almost every other animal. 



This is not the proper place for inquiry into the 

 purpose which this very peculiar form of the body 

 answers in the economy of these animals (see FLAT- 

 FISIIKS) ; but still there is so much both of resem- 

 blance and of contrast between those fishes which have 

 the body compressed, and swim with it on the flat, 

 and those which swim with it on the edge, that much 

 information respecting their habits might be drawn 

 from it. Indeed, there is reason to suppose that, if 

 this were properly studied, it. might explain the dif- 

 ferent uses of the several kinds of fins and of scales 

 to fishes in the operation of swimming. 



Both descriptions of animals, though they belong lo 

 very different parts of the system, according to the 

 characters upon which it is at present, founded, have 

 yet some very striking coincidences. Both are smooth 

 fishes, either with no perceptible scales, or with the 

 scales so very small that they arc of comparatively little 

 use in swimming; in both, the flesh is wholesome and 

 agreeable ; and both, from the smallness of the scales, 

 have to depend wholly on the fins and the flexures of 

 the body as the means of progressive motion. But 

 the fins of the flat fishes are small and soil, and the 

 chief action of the body is in the vertical direction, or 

 that which acts more powerfully in ascent and de-scent 

 than in progressive motion. The fins of the com- 

 pressed fishes which swim with the body on edge, are, 

 on the other hand, produced, and have strong spinous 

 rayn, while most of the division vumci; and the genus 

 blepharisimm especial manner, have filaments attached 

 to some of the fins. Further, the flat fishes have the 

 colour and texture which answer to those of the back 

 in ordinary fishes, extending over one side of the body, 

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