9 3 



ACCOUNT OF FIVE RARE SPECIES 



BLENNIUS G AXERITA. 



(Plate V. Fig. a.) 



A fish, in some particulars corresponding with 

 the description usually given of the Crested Blen- 

 ny, has several times occurred to me on the 

 western coast ; but upon comparing it with that 

 described by Gmelin and Dr Turton, there 

 appears such a material difference in the number 

 of rays in the fins, especially in the dorsal, that 

 either some unaccountable mistake must have ori- 

 ginally happened, or it cannot possibly be the 

 same species. My doubts on this subject are not 

 the least removed by consulting the figure in the 

 British Zoology, in which the dorsal fin is ex- 

 tremely narrow, and continued in a straight line 

 throughout, and the anal fin is of a corresponding 

 breadth ; whereas, on the contrary, in my fish, 

 these fins are very broad, and the first has a re- 

 markable flexure in the middle ; neither possess 

 above half the number of rays they are generally 

 described to have, and that, in so large a number 

 as sixty, is too great a difference to be considered 

 as an accidental variety. Dr Turton says, of 

 these sixty rays, fifty are spinous. This adds new 

 difficulties to our inquiries, since my fish has all 

 the rays soft. 



