NORTHERN CHIM.'ERA. 



365 



holes communicating with the external gill-opening. They 

 have a rudimentary operculum concealed by the skin ; and 

 their jaws, still more reduced than those of the Sharks, are 

 furnished with hard plates, four above and two below, in 

 place of teeth. The males are distinguished by trifid bony 

 appendages to the ventral fins, and produce very large lea- 

 thery eggs, having flat velvety edges." 



The Northern Chimsera is represented as a fish of singular 

 appearance and beauty, a native of the northern seas only, 

 where it seldom exceeds three feet in length, and is generally 

 taken when in pursuit of shoals of Herrings, or other small 

 roving fishes, upon which it principally subsists : Bloch says 

 it feeds also on medusae and Crustacea. The flesh is de- 

 scribed as hard and coarse. According to some authors, the 

 Norwegians extract an oil from the liver which they consider 

 of singular efficacy in disorders of the eyes. 



Pennant received from a gentleman a drawing and particu- 

 lars of one that had been taken among the Shetland Islands : 

 this species was also known to Dr. Walker as an occasional 

 visitor in that locality. Never having seen this fish, I avail 

 myself of Dr. Fleming*'s description, taken from a specimen 

 sent by L. Edmonston, Esq. from Unst, where it is termed 

 the Rabbit-fish. A specimen taken from the same locality 

 has lately been received by Mr. W. C. Hewitson of New- 

 castle, the author of a valuable work on the eggs of British 

 Birds. 



" Length nearly three feet. Body compressed. Head 

 blunt ; the snout sub-ascending, blunt. A narrow crenulated 

 grinder on each side in the lower jaw, and a broad tubercular 

 one corresponding above. Nostrils immediately above the 

 upper lip contiguous, each with a cartilaginous complicated 

 valve. Branchial openings in front of the pectorals. Eyes 

 large, lateral. On the crown, in front of the eyes, a thin 



