40 Mr. R. Parnell on the Motella cimbria. 



Description. — From a specimen 14 inches in length. Form 

 closely resembling that of the five-bearded rockling, but the 

 length of the head is somewhat greater compared to that of 

 the body ; body elongated, rounded in front, compressed be- 

 hind, tapering from the vent to the caudal extremity, greatest 

 depth less than the length of the head. Head one-sixth of 

 the entire length, caudal fin included, slightly depressed; snout 

 blunt, projecting considerably beyond the under jaw ; eye 

 large, of an oval form, placed high up, and about its own length 

 from the point of the snout ; operculum rounded, oblique ; 

 giU-opening large ; gape wide ; maxiUary extending in a line 

 with the posterior margin of the orbit ; teeth sharp, and fine, 

 situated in two rows on the under jaw, and in five rows on the 

 upper, a few are also placed in a cluster on the anterior part 

 of the vomer; barbules four, one a little in front of each 

 nostril, one at the extremity of the upper lip, and one on the 

 chin ; tongue fleshy, smooth, and without teeth. Fins, first 

 dorsal obsolete, scarcely discernible, commencing over the 

 operculum, and terminating a httle in front of the second 

 dorsal, composed of a number of short, fine, capillary rays, of 

 which the first is the largest, presenting an appearance, ac- 

 cording to Linnaeus, of the letter T, but this latter character 

 I was unable to recognise in the present example, owing to 

 that ray having been somewhat destroyed previously to the 

 fish coming into my possession ; second dorsal taking its ori- 

 gin in a line over the ends of the pectorals, and terminating 

 a little in advance of the caudal, the anterior portion nearly of 

 equal height, the rays in the posterior half more sensibly in- 

 creasing in length to the last but four, from thence rapidly 

 diminishing, the first ray simple, the rest branched ; anal com- 

 mencing in a line under the twelfth ray of the second dorsal, 

 and ending under the last ray but three of the same fin, in 

 form similar to the second dorsal, but the rays scarcely more 

 than one half the length, the first ray simple, the rest branched; 

 caudal rounded at the extremity, the lengths of the middle 

 rays equalling the space between the first and twelfth rays of 

 the anal, the lateral rays simple ; ventrals jugular, the second 

 rays the longest, about two-thirds the length of the pectoral ; 

 pectorals rounded at the extremities, equalling the length of 



