No. VI] 



NOTICES OF THE FISHES. 



727 



Colour.— The colour of the body is a clouded admixture of tints of broccoli-brown 

 and olive-green. The belly is white. The fins are streaked with bluish black. 



The head is large and depressed. The posterior edges of the operculum and sub- 

 operculum are armed with four or five small spinous teeth. The pre-operculum is 

 furnished with three strong divaricated spines, the posterior of which is the largest, 

 and half an inch long. The bones which support the pectoral fins are also armed 

 with small spines, and have sharp rough edges. There are six obtuse club, or rather 

 nail-shaped processes, rising from the crown of the head. Their surfaces are minute- 

 ly cancellated and scabrous. The smallest pair stand betwixt the nares, the largest 

 on the superior posterior margins of the orbits, and the third on the occiput. 



The eyes are large ; the irides are tinged red. 



The mouth is capacious, and has its margin formed by the inter maxillaries and 

 lower jaw. The maxillaries, of a long cuneiform shape, lie in a membrane behind 

 the intermaxillaries. The jaws and vomer are set with a crowded assemblage of 

 small teeth. The maxillaries, palate, and tongue, are smooth. The tongue is 

 obtuse. The anus is situated about midway between the mouth and caudal fin. 



The branchiostegous membrane is capable of inflation, and contains six slender 

 cylindrical curved rays. 



Fins. — The pectoral fins are sub-orbicular, with sixteen rays, none of them branch- 

 ed. The ventral fins, soft and whitish, have three rays, of which the first is the 

 strongest ; none of them are spinous. The anterior dorsal fin commences poste- 

 riorly to the pectoral fins, and terminates opposite to the anus. It has seven simple 

 rays. The posterior dorsal is larger, and has thirteen rays. Its commencement and 

 termination correspond with those of the anal fin — most of its rays are scabrous. 

 Both dorsal fins are arched. The anal fin commences a short way behind the anus, 

 and terminates so as to leave about one-third part of the tail naked. Its depth 

 slightly diminishes as it recedes backwards. The caudal fin is cuneiform, and has 

 twelve rays, most of them forked. 



B. 6. P. 16. V. 3. A. . D. 7—13. C. 12. 



This fish is found abundantly in the Arctic Sea. Our Canadian voyagers gave it 

 the name of Crapaud de Mer, which is very expressive, but has been already applied 

 to a different fish. 



It resembles the cottus quadricomis Bloch, t. 108, very strongly in form and di- 

 mensions ; but, exclusive of differences of the number of rays in the fins, the addi- 

 tional pair of horns forms a distinguishing character. The body, too, appears to be 

 less rough than in Bloch's species. 



