68 



WITH HARD CHEEKS. 



ACANTHOPTERYG1L WITH HARD CHEEKS. 



THE FOUR-HORNED COTTUS. 



Cottns quadric.ornis, LINNJEUS. 



,, BLOCH, pt. iii. pi. 108. 



,, ,, Cuv. et VALENC. Hist. Nat. des Poiss. t. iv. p. 168. 



I AM indebted to the communication of my friend Mr. 

 J. E. Gray, of the British Museum, for the knowledge of 

 the occurrence of the Four-horned Cottus on our shore ; 

 and the figure at the head of the page was drawn from a 

 specimen in the National collection. 



This species, first made known by Artedi, is common 

 in the Baltic, on the west coast of Norway, and in all the 

 Northern Seas even as far as Kamtschatka. It has also been 

 taken on the north-east coast of England by our fishermen 

 in winter, when working nets with small meshes for sprats ; 

 and in sorting for sale the many bushels of this common 

 fish brought to the London market, the Four-horned Cottus 

 has been occasionally found. 



As a species, it is distinguished by four rough tubercles 

 on the top of the head, from which character its name has 

 been chosen : but Pallas observed occasional variations in 



