196 



dorsal fin commences above the gills, and the rays are very 

 minute and obscure, the first excepted, but more than thirty 

 have been counted ; the second dorsal commences close to 

 the other, in a line with the end of the pectoral, and termi- 

 nates close to the caudal ; the rays are innumerable : the anal 

 fin begins immediately behind the vent, and terminates even 

 with the dorsal ; the caudal fin is nearly even at the end. 

 Length about two inches. 



l( I first noticed many of these fishes thrown upon* the 

 shore in the south of Devonshire, in the summer of 1808, 

 and have taken two or three since. The fishermen called it 

 Whitebait, but I afterwards found they had mistaken it for 

 the fry of Herring and Pilchard, which indiscriminately go 

 by that name, and are sold together in some places under 

 the name of Herring-Sprat. 



" The Three-Bearded Cod (Rockling) is a very common 

 species on the western coast, and which I have taken of all 

 sizes, from the most minute to its full growth of sixteen or 

 seventeen inches, and never observed it to vary in colour, 

 except as it grows large it becomes more rufous and throws 

 out spots, which is never observed till it exceeds six or seven 

 inches, but is invariably rufous brown in its infant state."" 



It is worthy of remark, that this little fish, representing in 

 miniature the Three-Bearded Rockling, offers an instance 

 perfectly analogous to the representation in an equally dimi- 

 nutive size of the five-bearded species, by Mr. Couch's recent 

 discovery of the Mackerel Midge. 



