TOPKNOT. 109 



The specimen I allude to I took home, and observed 

 at leisure. In a white saucer it was a charming little 

 object, though rather difficult to examine, because, the 

 instant the eye with the lens was brought near, it 

 flounced in alarm, and often leaped out upon the table. 

 When its fit of terror was over, however, it became still, 

 and would allow me to push it hither and thither, 

 merely waving the edges of its dorsal and ventral fins 

 rapidly as it yielded to the impulse. The shape of 

 these fins gives to the outline of the fish a form resem- 

 bling an oblong parallelogram with the corners rounded, 

 and the fan-like tail projecting ; but the outline of the 

 body is much more ovaL The first ray of the dorsal is 

 a little lengthened ; whence the name of Topknot. We 

 have two little species of Turbot with this peculiarity, 

 called Muller's Topknot, and Bloch's Topknot. This 

 was the former. Yarrell, indeed, distinguishes the two 

 by saying that this one has " the first ray of the dorsal 

 not longer than the succeeding rays ;" or, in other 

 words, that it has no topknot at all. It may be that it 

 is obliterated in age, but in this half-grown specimen, it 

 was quite conspicuous, projecting like a little horn from 

 the forehead, about one-fourth longer than the second 

 and following rays. In Bloch's Topknot it is, indeed, 

 more marked, for it there runs off into a slender fila- 

 ment, of more than twice the length of the rays. The 



