70 WITH HAKD CHEEKS. 



ACANTHOPTERYGII. WITH HARD CHEEKS. 



THE ARMED BULLHEAD, POGGE. 



LYRIE, SEA-POACHER, PLUCK, NOBLE. Scotland. 



Aspidophorus Europmis, Cuv. et Valenc Hist. Nat. des Poiss. t. iv. p. 201. 

 Cottus cataphractus, Linn^us. Block, pt. ii. pi. 39. 



,, „ Armed Bullhead, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 293, 



pi. 43. 



„ „ Pogge, Don. Brit. Fish. pi. 16. 



Cataphractus Schoneveldii, Pogge, Flem. p. 216, pi. 155. 



Generic Characters. — Body octagonal, covered with scaly plates ; head 

 thicker than the body, with points and depressions above, flattened below ; 

 teeth in both jaws only, none on the vomer ; snout with recurved spines ; bran- 

 chiostegous rays 6 ; body tapering to the tail ; two dorsal fins, distinct. 



This very marked species was first described by Sclione- 

 velde, a physician of Hamburgh, who published in 1624 a ca- 

 talogue of the aquatic animals of Silesia and Holstein. It is 

 now known to exist not only in the Baltic, but on the coast 

 of Norway, and in all the Northern Seas as far as Greenland 

 and Iceland. Mr. Couch says that it is not very common in 

 Cornwall ; and that, when found, it is most frequently near 

 the mouths of rivers, but occasionally taken far out at sea. 



