64 MONOGRAPH OF THE FRESH WATER III. 



CHAPTER V. 

 ON THE GENUS TRIGLOPSIS, 1 Girard. 



THERE are animals whose organization is specially adapted for tin- depths, and 

 which are never or but seldom seen or met with at the edges of the water, on the 

 sea beaches, or else on the shores of the lakes. The iron dredge has brought to 

 light many such. 



There is another way of securing the inhabitant! of the deep bottoms, which 

 consists in opening the stomachs of the large wandering kinds, as they generally 

 feed upon the small and inoffensive ones. The sole difficulty in this case is the 

 digestive power of that organ, which in a short time has destroyed all the soft and 

 delicate parts, the ornament of the solid frame, either bony or calcareous. 



The generic feature of Triglopsis does not consist in the possession of characters 

 peculiar to itself alone, but rather in the association of characters which may indi- 

 vidually be found to exist in other genera, and from whose combination results its 

 peculiar physiognomy. 



The general form of the head and body reminds us of the genus Trigla; by its 

 smooth head, the structure of the mouth, and the first dorsal lower than the second 

 it approaches Cotti; the elongated snout and head, and the presence of several 

 spines on the preopercular, is an approximation towards Acanthocotti. The 

 genus differs from Trigla, by a smooth head and body, the first not being 

 cuirassed, and the second not scaled, and by the first dorsal fin which is lower than 

 the second ; from Acanthocottus, by the want of spines on the head, which, as 

 stated, is smooth; also by the first dorsal lower than the second, and by the shape 

 of the mouth, the angles of which do not extend back of the eyes; and if it 

 appear more deeply cleft than in Cottus, it is owing to the fact that the snout is 

 pointed instead of being truncated; from Cottus it differs by its elongated snout 

 and the presence of several spines on the preopercular, on the one hand, and by its 

 more slender head and body, on the other. It is still more widely distinct from 

 Cottopsis, with which it has no other affinities except those which entitle it to a 

 place in the same family. 



Although our genus Tnulop>is lias no generic character belonging exclusively to 

 it, it is important that we should recapitulate all those which we have just enume- 

 rated, in connection with the genera which partake of some of them. Body and 



1 1'roc. Boat. Soc. Nat. Hist, iv , 1851, p. 18. 



