THE FOUR-HOllNED COTTUS. 69 



the number and size of tliese warty excrescences, and be- 

 lieved that the young had for a time but two of these tuber- 

 cles, and were only provided with four by the time they had 

 attained the length of seven or eight inches. 



The Four-horned Cottus swims rapidly, but is generally 

 observed lying in ambush, near stones or among sea-weed, 

 ready to seize its food, and is known, by examination of the 

 cont(3nts of the stomach, to feed more frequently on the 

 young of the two species of Goby, that are there common, 

 than upon any other small species. But little use is made 

 of this fish, except as a bait for others. They spawn in win- 

 ter, and the ova are white. 



D. 8 — 14 : P. 17 : V. 1 -f-3 : A. 15 : C. 11. 



The head is large and flat ; mouth wide, jaws equal, teeth 

 as described in the generic characters ; irides yellow, pupil 

 black ; preoperculum with thi-ee spines, operculum with only 

 one ; four horn-like tubercles on the top of the head, two of 

 which are near the eyes, and two on the nape ; body elon- 

 gated, compressed ; colour of the head brown, tinged with red 

 on the gill-covers ; back brown, the sides yellow, the belly 

 greyish white ; the lateral line nearly straight, and marked 

 with rough points ; the body also freckled v/ith scabrous 

 points ; the fins prettily mottled with brown. 



Two specimens of the Four-horned Cottus were the only 

 fish taken in the sea with a net at Melville Island. — Parry s 

 First Voyage. 



