FOUR-BEARDED ROCKLING. 



S9 



SUBBRACHIAL 

 MALACOFTERVGII. 



GABIDM. 



THE FOUR-BEARDED ROCKLING. 



Motella cimbria, The Four-bearded Ruckling, Parnei.l, Wern. Mem. vol. vii 



p. 449. pi. 44. 

 Gadus cimbrius, Linn^us, Syst. Nat. p. 440, sp. 16. 



Retz, Faun. Suec. p. 323. 

 Enchelyopus cimbricus, Schneider, Syst. Ichth. p. 50, sp. 1, tab. 9. 

 Motella cimbrica, Nilsson, Prod. Ichth. Scand. p. 48, sp. 2. 



This species of Motella, first described by Linnseus, is 

 included by Dr. Parnell in his description of the Fishes of 

 the Forth, a specimen, fourteen inches in length, having 

 been brought to him by a Newhaven fisherman, who had 

 caught it a little to the east of Inchkeith on a Haddock line 

 baited with muscles. It is a species perfectly distinct from 

 the Three or. the Five-bearded Rocklings, so much more 

 common on various parts of the coast, and may at once be 

 distinguished from either by the greater length of the fila- 

 ment, Avhich is placed in advance of the almost obsolete 

 first dorsal fin. This filament in a fish of nine inches 

 long, measures one inch and seven-eighths ; and in another 

 fish of ten inches and a half in length, measures two inches 

 and a quarter, as I find from portions of two specimens 



