COTTOIDE.E. 



53 



wards towards the preoperculum, which it does not quite reach, so that we can scarcely say 

 that the cheek is mailed. The whole fish is clothed with small rough scales, even to the 

 extremity of the snout and on the labials, the only naked parts being the branchiosfegous 

 membrane and the posterior borders of the gill-opening, including the base of the pectorals. 

 Belts of minute scales cover the basal halves of the vertical fins. 



Fins.— Br. 7 ; D. 15/ — 15; A. 3/8; C. 14; P. 19; V. 1/5. (Hist, des Poiss.) 



The Mediterranean possesses a species of Sebastes which differs from the above 

 in a few characters, and at the Cape of Good Hope there is one which very closely 

 resembles the northern species, and another which is more like the Mediterranean 

 one. There are two or more in the Indian and Polynesian seas, and several in 

 the sea of Japan. The following one is from the sea of Kamtschatka. 



[26.] 2. ScoRPiENA (Sebastes) variabilis. (Cuvier.) The Tockoo. 



La Sebaste variable (Sebastes variabilis). Cuv. et VAL.,iv., p. 347. 



This Sebastes has the head less armed than any other species ; there are not 

 even crests on the cranium, or over the orbits, and no teeth on the sub-orbitars : 

 the preoperculum has five short, obtuse teeth, and the operculum two points. That 

 it belongs, however, to this genus is evident from the narrow process which the 

 posterior sub-orbitar sends towards the preoperculum, and which may be felt 

 through the skin, and also from the nine simple rays of the pectorals. Fins. — 

 D. 13/15; A. 3/9; C. 17; V. 1/5; P. 18, of which nine are simple. It is 

 taken plentifully among the Aleutian Islands, and is named kakootsheek by the 

 inhabitants, and tockoo on the American coast. Vancouver found a " sea-perch " 

 at Port Discovery, in the Straits of Juan da Fuca, which may be this species ; but 

 the name is too vaguely applied by sailors to render even the genus anything more 

 than conjectural. 



[27.] 1. Blepsias trilobus. (Cuvier.) Three-hbed Blepsias. 



Family, Cottoidese. Genus, Blepsias. Cuvier. 



Le Blepsias trilobe (Blepsias trilobus). Cuv. et Vai. , iv., p. 375, pi. 90. 



The spiny preoperculum, compressed head, mailed cheek, palatine teeth, 

 short, simple, and half-detached lower rays of the pectorals, and fleshy appendages 



