THE BLENNY FAMILY. 215 



above. It then has an iridescent greenish-bronze appearance. 

 Ventrally a black pigment-line begins on the hyoid and 

 continues along the median line to the vent — ^just as in the 

 younger form, except that in front it now passes between 

 the separated limbs of the A-shaped arrangement. A line 

 of the same chromatophores proceeds backward from the 

 vent to the tail. In addition to the foregoing a band of small 

 though distinct black pigment-spots commences on the lateral 

 region behind the breast-fin, and extends to the vent. A single 

 spot occurs on each side beneath the breast-fin, and thus 

 below the foregoing. During life all these pigment-specks were 

 in a state of contraction ; but as death approached they gradually 

 assumed a stellate form, and thus the spirit-preparation shows 

 the coloration much more distinctly than the living animal. 



The breast-fins are proportionally large. All the dorsal 

 interspinous bones, as also the articulation of the fin-rays, are 

 evident, whereas only the first three or four of the anal are 

 seen, the first, indeed, alone presenting an articulation with the 

 fin-ray. Thirty-seven inferior (haemal) spines occurred in front 

 of the vent. A few minute black pigment-specks are visible 

 (under the microscope) along the spinal cord. The rudimentary 

 vertebral axis (notochord) remains for the most part simple. 

 The basal elements (hypural and epiural) in the tail bore the 

 following rays : — eight on the large inferior one, three on the 

 next above, then one or more intermediate, three to the upper, 

 above which lay the tip of the notochord, while four rested on 

 the superior elements (epiurals). The total number was thus 

 nineteen as contrasted with fifteen — given by Day as the 

 number of rays in the adult. The dorsal fin-rays were 79 or 

 80 ; Day gives 75 to 82. The anal fin had 44 rays ; Day 

 mentions 39 to 4.5. Only eleven rays were distinguishable in 

 the breast-fins; Day states that the number is 11 or 12. As 

 the fish was quite translucent these numbers are of interest. 

 Both dorsally and ventrally a portion of the larval fin existed 

 in front of the tail. The whole fish is active and muscular, 

 and its transparency fits it for joining with others — both round 

 and flat — in that wonderful pelagic life, so different from that of 

 its parents in the rock-pools and runlets along the shore. 



