CHAP. XVI. ] Couchia Kdwardin. 299 
“Long before the discovery of the mackerel midge as a separate 
species, an account had been given by Colonel Montagu of a kindred 
fish, which he supposed to be common to the coast of Devonshire, and 
which he described as being distinguished by the possession of a pair 
only of the frontal barbs ; and yet for more than half a century this 
species of midge had remained in obscurity, until it was again brought 
to light by the diligent and acute observation of Mr. Thomas Edward, 
of Banff, who found it in some abundance in the Moray Firth, and 
kindly supplied the writer with examples, which enabled him to give 
an account of it, with a figure, in the concluding portion of the fourth 
volume of his ‘History of the Fishes of the British Islands.’ The 
five-bearded species had been already represented in a colored figure 
in the third volume of the same book, as also in Mr. Yarrell’s well- 
known volumes. But a vacancy still existed in the analogy between 
the species of the nearly allied genera Motella and Couchia ; and it is 
this, again, we are able to supply through the persevering diligence 
of Mr. Edward, whose intelligence enabled him to detect the existence 
of another species, and whose kindness has, with an example, com- 
municated materials which enable the writer to produce, with a satis- 
factory likeness, a somewhat extended notice of its actions, the latter 
of which will be described, as far as can be, in this attentive observ- 
er’s own words. The length of the example from which my notes 
were taken is an inch and five-eighths; and as half a dozen others 
were about the same size, it. may be judged to be their usual magni- 
tude, as it does not differ much also from that of C. glauca and C. 
Montagui. Compared with the latter, its shape is more slender, the 
pectoral fin rather more lengthened and pointed, the ventral fins long- 
er and Slender, the cilia on the back, along the edge of the membrane, 
more extended, apparently more numerous, and very fine; barb on 
the lower jaw long; but what especially marks this little fish as dis- 
tinct from the other species is, that, besides the pair of barbs in front 
of the head, there is a single one of much larger size in front of the 
upper lip, and which points directly forward with a slight inclination 
downward, thus analogically answering to the middle barb that pro- 
jects from the snout of the four-bearded rockling (Jfotella cimbria). 
It is probable that there are teeth in the jaws, but they can scarcely 
be seen, and there is a row of pores along each border of the superior 
maxillary bone. Some further particulars of this fish I prefer to give 
in the words of its discoverer, who describes its color as a beautiful 
deep green along the back when caught, the sides brilliantly white ; 
but when it reached me, preserved in spirit, it was blue, with a tinge 
of the same along the lateral line. In some examples in Mr. Edward’s 
possession the color on the back was a faint yellow, with a narrow 
