SHORE FISHES. 265 



brown. The head tapers gently from the dorsal fin to the 

 small, equal jaws. It is generally known as Butterfish, and 

 anyone who has undertaken to capture one with his hands 

 alone will appreciate the fitness of the name, for it is so 

 slippery that it might have been freshly greased. 



Other local names for it are Swordick, in allusion to its 

 sword-shape ; and Nine-eyes, suggested by the ocelli on its 

 back. The name by which it is best known in books is the 

 Gunnel, which originated in a singular manner, according to 

 Couch. It appears that John Ray, the celebrated naturalist, 

 made his acquaintance with this fish on the Cornish coast, 

 where it is common, and applied to a native for its name. 

 The native was probably a fisherman, one of a class that takes 

 little account of the inhabitants of the deep unless they are 

 marketable sorts. He knew no more about it than John Ray 

 did, but casting around for some analogy in the shape of the 

 fish, he answered, " It looks like a gunwale " (pronounced 

 " gunnel "). He thought it resembled ths gunwale of a boat ; 

 but Ray naturally took "gunnel" to be the local name for the 

 fish, and so he inscribed it in his book, and Gunnel has been 

 the English book-name ever since, and has also been Latinized 

 into gunnellus to form a scientific name. 



To those who are satisfied with a cursory glance at natural 

 objects as they flash by in life, the Rocklings might pass for 

 Gunnels, and the Gunnel for a Rockling. The Rocklings' 

 colour, though more ruddy and deeper, and their general form 

 though much rounder, are sufficiently similar to warrant the 

 superficial observer in classing them together. Their habitat, 

 too, is much the same as the Gunnel's ; and if we go down 

 at low-water to the edge of the tide, and turn over the large 

 flat stones that are there, we shall be sure to find a few Rock- 

 lings of various sizes some a foot or more in length. 



Our turning-over of the stone is the signal for an excited 

 rush, and a splashing up of the water as the Rockling dashes 

 from stone to stone, from hole to hole. After having let him 



