CHAPTER XLIV 
THE BLENNIES: BLENNIIDAE 
J} HE great family of blennies, Blenniide, contains a vast 
number of species with elongate body, numerous dor- 
y-*| sal spines, without suborbital stay or sucking-disk, 
and the ventrals jugular, where present, and of one spine and 
less than five soft rays. Most of them are of small size, living 
about rocks on the sea-shores of all regions. In general they 
are active fishes, of handsome but dark coloration, and in the 
different parts of the group is found great variety of structure. 
The tropical forms differ from those of arctic regions in the 
much shorter bodies and fewer vertebrze. These forms are most 
like ordinary fishes in appearance and structure and are doubt- 
less the most primitive. Of the five hundred known species of 
Fic. 615 —Sarcastic Blenny, Neoclinus satiricus Girard. Monterey. 
blennies, we can note only a few of the most prominent. To 
Clinus and related genera belong many species of the warm 
seas, scaly and ovoviviparous, at least for the most part. The 
largest of these is the great kelpfish of the coast of California, 
Heterostichus rostratus, a food-fish of importance, reaching the 
length of two feet. Others of this type scarcely exceed two 
inches. Neoclinus satiricus, also of California, is remarkable 
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