56 MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES 



Being unable also to identify it with any of the various non- 

 British Continental members of the same genus, the writer 

 has proposed provisionally to distinguish this apparently 

 new type by the title of Couch's Sucker (Lepidogaster 

 couchii), No. 73. While most plentiful on the shores of 

 Jersey and Guernsey, this little fish is tolerably abundant 

 also on the Devonshire and Cornish coasts. All of the flat- 

 headed Suckers are most interesting additions to small 

 aquaria, they speedily becoming so tame as to feed fearlessly 

 from the hand, and their bright colours and lively habits 

 adding greatly to their attractiveness. They breed freely 

 in captivity, a favourite nidus for the deposition of their 

 ova being the empty shells of bivalve molluscs. The 

 males, as in the case of the Lump-fish (Cyclopterus), mount 

 guard over the eggs till hatched. 



FAMILY XXL— Blennies (Blenniidce). 



Body elongate, compressed, naked, or clothed with 

 minute scales ; teeth well developed, diversely modified ; a 

 single dorsal fin usually extending throughout the entire 

 length of the dorsal region, the boundary between its 

 spinous and soft portions being indistinct or indicated by 

 a simple notch ; ventral fins composed of but few rays, often 

 rudimentary or absent ; branchiostegal rays five to seven in 

 number ; air-bladder absent. 



The majority of the members of the Blenny family are 

 small litoral fish, distributed abundantly throughout the 

 temperate and tropical seas, and represented by as many as 

 eight British species. Among these there occurs an excep- 

 tional type inhabiting deeper water, which, compared with 

 its congeners, is a perfect monster. This is the well-known 

 Wolf or Cat-fish (Auarrkicus lupus), No. 74, the first popular 



