UNCTUOUS SUCKER. 275 



Mr. Low says, " The Sea-Snail is found under the stones 

 of many places of Orkney ; but no place more frequent than 

 that at the point of the Ness of Stromness, where they may 

 be picked up by dozens." 



Mr. Donovan obtained a specimen from among a parcel of 

 Sprats at Billingsgate fish-market ; and those who recollect 

 the wholesale mode of fishing for Sprats practised by the 

 Stow-boatmen, as described at page 123, will not be sur- 

 prised that many rare and curious fishes of small size are 

 caught with the Sprats. It is also obtained on the southern 

 coast, under stones, and in small pools of water left by the 

 ebbing tide. Dr. Mac Culloch says this species ascends rivers 

 from the sea to deposit its spawn, and it is frequently found 

 near the mouths of rivers. Pennant says it is full of spawn 

 in January, and the matured ova are said to be very large. 

 It feeds on aquatic insects, testaceous animals, and very 

 small fishes. 



The whole length of the specimen described was four 

 inches, which is the common size of the adult of this species ; 

 but it is said to grow much larger in the Northern Seas : the 

 head is about one-fourth of the whole length of the fish ; the 

 eyes widely separated, the space between them depressed ; 

 the nose blunt ; the lips thick and fleshy ; the mouth wide, 

 but not deeply divided. Mr. Low says it has no teeth ; but 

 this is an oversight ; the teeth are very numerous, and small, 

 with minutely recurved points, forming a broad rasp-like 

 band in each jaw ; the tongue also broad, covered with pro- 

 minent papillae ; the lower jaw rather the longest ; the gill- 

 opening placed high up ; the form from the shoulder is 

 compressed, and tapering all the way to the tail ; the body 

 invested with a thin semi-transparent membrane, which en- 

 closes it like a bag, the fixed points being the lines of the 

 dorsal and anal fins ; the pectoral fins are large, and the 



