COTTUS QUADRICORNIS. 57 



dark olive-green, spotted or marbled with grey. The sides are white, 

 with blackish-grey marbling; the belly is yellow in the males, and white 

 in the females. The dorsal and anal fins have broad black and grey bands ; 

 the other fins are banded with black, grey, and orange. The liver is very 

 large, and flesh-red. The stomach has four pyloric appendages. 



There are thirty-five vertebrae. The upper surface of the skull is formed 

 chiefly by the frontal bones, which have concave excavations to receive 

 the eyes. The crown of the head is flat, but the space between the eyes 

 is concave, and an obtuse ridge running from the back of the eye defines 

 the crown from the side of the head. The vomer is anchor-shaped, tapering 

 posteriorly. The maxillary bone is more elongated than the pre-maxillary. 

 The dentary bone of the mandible sends off a free superior fork. Below 

 the orbit are three oblong flat bones, with several mucus pits. Both the skull 

 and dentary bone are well supplied with mucus channels. 



This species spawns in December and January, and deposits its eggs 

 on sea-plants. They are one millimetre in diameter, of an orange-red 

 colour, and are contained in a thick envelope. The fish usually lives in deep 

 water, but frequents the coast in summer, when it occasionally enters rivers. 

 It occurs in the north of the Gulf of Bothnia ; but it is nowhere frequent in 

 fresh water. The liver is well flavoured, and is occasionally used for the 

 manufacture of oil, when the fish is taken in large shoals. The length of 

 this species varies from twenty or thirty centimetres to one metre. 



The Horned Bullhead, Coitus quadricornis (Linnaeus), is found in Lake 

 Ladoga, in Russia. It occurs in Lake Wetter, in Sweden, and in other 

 large Scandinavian lakes ; is found in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic ; and 

 is not rare on our own coasts. 



FAMILY: GOBIID^E. 

 G-ENUS : GobiuS (ARTEDI). 



Under the name Acanthopterygii gobiiformes Dr. Gunther comprises 

 a division of fishes containing the Discoboli and the Gobiida. In the 

 former the ventral fins have the spine and five rays rudimentary, and they 

 form the bony support for a round disc, margined by a membranous fringe, 

 which forms a sucker, very well seen in the marine Lump-sucker. 



The GofjiidfB comprise fishes which have the body elongated, naked in 

 some species, and scaly in others; rarely tuberculate, as in the Discoboli. 



