1416 Fishes. 



of the tendrils, the powerful ventral fins are then brought into play, 

 the fish starts up and opens its capacious mouth, and so catches the 

 unwary victim. It also pursues its prey by means of a rapid succes- 

 sion of jerks. 



There are many fish which have fleshy prolongations on their head 

 and back besides the dory, such as the Labridae, &c, they are all low 

 swimming fish, and most of them frequent rocky ground and crevices, 

 overhung with seaweed. In watching them as they pass and repass 

 between the rocks, and when I have placed them in pools where it 

 has been much easier to watch them, it seemed as if these 7 fleshy pro- 

 longations were used as instruments of touch ; but for what purpose 

 seems doubtful. It may be to warn them from entering a crevice too 

 small, or to give notice of what is above them. 



The dory is a very gluttonous fish, and my father mentions having 

 found in the stomach of one twelve inches and a half long, twenty-five 

 flounders, of which few were less than two and a half inches long ; 

 three half-grown sting fishes [Cottus scorpio), and five stones, taken 

 apparently in the eager pursuit after its prey. The dory was so 

 gorged, that it suffered itself to be taken by the hand. 



Boar Fish, Z. Aper. A figure of this species is to be found in the 

 'Zoologist,' (Zool. 191). The first recorded British specimen of this 

 fish was taken in Mount's Bay; another in 1841 was taken near Fal- 

 mouth, but in July, 1844, two hundred specimens were taken in a 

 trawl-net, near the Runnelstone in Mount's Bay. In July, 1845 

 others were caught in the same locality and were exposed for sale in 

 Penzance market. I found it by no means a very delicate eating fish, 

 though it was cooked in a variety of ways. The size of the specimens 

 examined varied from five to seven inches, the depth about three, and 

 the girth about seven inches in front of the first dorsal fin. The 

 snout is long and capable of a still further extension of about seven- 

 eighths of an inch. In Mr. Yarrell's figure of this species the first 

 rays of the dorsal-fin are represented as serrated, which was not the 

 case in any example, but the first ray of the ventral was very strongly 

 so. The general colour of the specimens while living was a fine crim- 

 son, delicately bright and faded into yellow, and from thence to a sil- 

 very white as it approached the belly. In the first specimens seen 

 there were no lateral bands as are sometimes described, but in those 

 examined last year, they were distinctly though faintly marked : 



D 9+24. P 13. V 1+5. A 3+4. C 14. 

 Two specimens are preserved in the Penzance Museum. 



The Scabbard Fish, Lepidopus anjijreus. This is a rare fish ; two 



