GOMIOID.E. 



frequently taken by the net : it is, however, sometimes 

 captured in that manner on the coast of South Devon, 

 particularly in the estuary of Kingsbridge, from whence, 

 says Colonel Montagu, we have obtained several speci- 

 mens of tolerable size, the largest about five inches. 



" The head is large, the cheeks inflated, and the lips 

 very thick : the mouth is wide, and furnished with numerous 

 small and very short teeth in several indistinct rows in both 

 jaws ; the under jaw is roughened by them like a rasp : 

 the eyes are high up on the head, and approximate ; the 

 upper part of them dusky, partaking of the colour of the 

 head, the lower part of the irides golden : between the eyes are 

 two small pores, the anterior one more than double the size of 

 the other, but not distinguishable without the assistance of a 

 lens : the nostrils are placed before the eyes, on the outside 

 of each of which is a small fleshy appendage, rather elevated. 

 The cheeks and opercula of the gills are furnished with 

 lines of very minute papillae, which appear like spines : most 

 of these lines are transverse, but some run longitudinally, 

 observable only with the aid of a glass. On the top of 

 the head a longitudinal sulcus runs as far as the commence- 

 ment of the first dorsal fin. The colour is uniformly dusky 

 in the more matured fishes, except from the chin to the 

 vent, which is whitish, with some deep purplish black be- 

 tween the gills beneath ; the ventral fins usually more or 

 less black. It is, when fresh, covered with a thick mu- 

 cous secretion ; but after having been in spirits, the fish 

 becomes extremely rough to the touch if rubbed the 

 reverse way. This roughness is occasioned by the scales, 

 which are large in proportion, being ciliated at their free 

 edges." 



" The ventral fins, which supply the great generic cha- 



