THE GUNNEL-FISH. 345 



tame, or rather, I should say, embolden. All my 

 efforts to domesticate various specimens have proved 

 unavailing ; and in spite of the most earnest and 

 kindly attention, they have generally pined away and 

 died within a week after their introduction to the 

 aquarium. 



From the illustration on Plate XII. the reader will 

 have no difficulty in recognising the original, should 

 he by chance meet with it hiding among the tangle, 

 or beneath the stones by the sea-shore. 



The spotted Blenny, Butter-Fish, or Gunnel- Fish, 

 as it is variously termed, is found lurking under stones 

 in the same places as the preceding. In the north 

 of Scotland it is called ' cloachs/ and is used exten- 

 sively as a bait for larger fish. When disturbed, it 

 wriggles its body about in the muddy bottom of the 

 rock -pool like an eel, for which, indeed, it is occa- 

 sionally mistaken. 



Its length varies from three to nine inches ; the 

 depth only half an inch; the sides very much com- 

 pressed and extremely thin. 



The dorsal fin consists of seventy-eight short spiny 

 rays, and runs the length of the back almost to the 

 tail. The most conspicuous feature in the Gunnel- 

 Fish are the eleven round spots which occur at the 

 top of the back, and reach the lower half of the dor- 

 -sal fin ; they are black, half encircled by white. 



The tail is rounded, and of a yellow colour. The back 

 and sides are of a deep olive ; the belly whitish. 



