200 THE LEPADOGASTER FAMILY. 



of symmetrical lobes pointed at the tip, and with two accessory 

 points at each side. 



One of the chief sexual distinctions, however, is the great 

 development of the papillae of the vent in the female. These 

 form long digitate processes inferiorly on each side, the lateral 

 being, in addition, united with the upper so as to form a broad 

 lobose frill. These extend as far as the tip of the median papilla 

 and envelop it. A great contrast, therefore, exists between this 

 species and the females of Lepadogaster Decandolii ' ; for the 

 females of this species, at the spawning-season, show only a 

 scries of short slender papillae at the vent, the posterior papilla 

 projecting almost as conspicuously as in the male of i. bimcwu- 

 latus. 



After spawning, the ovaries both of L. Decandolii and L. 

 himaculatus present a uniform structure, the stroma of the 

 organ in each being filled with what appear to be collapsed 

 eggs with thick walls and a central slit-like region. At first 

 sight they appeared to resemble thick shrunken capsules from 

 which ova had issued, but that they are ova undergoing change 

 is more probable. The appearance differed from that usually 

 seen in Teleostean ovaries, in which a crop of minute ova is 

 almost always found under these conditions. 



The Blenny Family. Blenniidae. 



The Wolf-fish. {Anarrhichas lupus, L.) 



This large fish, also known as the cat-fish, has a very 

 repulsive appearance, in agreement with which are its pre- 

 daceous habits. Experiments with the living fish show that it 

 can send its teeth about |th of an inch into pine, and in the 

 trawl the haddocks are sometimes mangled by the aimless 

 snapping of this form. It is, perhaps fancifully, said to enter 

 ' the fishermen's nets for the purpose of plundering them of the 

 entangled fish' (Woodward): but its usual food consists chiefly 



1 The edge of the tail-fin in L. Decandolii is regularly and beautifullj' serrate. 

 Day describes the latter as simply rounded at its extremity. 



