VIVIPAROUS BLENNY. 



181 



slender form, with a smooth., slippery skin, covered 

 by small scales, and is of a yellowish olive-colour, 

 paler beneath, and marked on the upper parts by 

 several moderately large dusky spots, which are 

 peculiarly conspicuous along the base of the dorsal 

 fin, forming a kind of bars on that part and o^er 

 the back: the dorsal, caudal, and anal fins in this 

 species are united, while the ventral fins are very 

 small and short, each consisting of two thiek, 

 rounded rays: the pectoral fins are rounded, and 

 of moderate size : the head is small, the lips thick, 

 and the nostrils prominent and tubular : the rays 

 of all the fins are soft. 



This fish, like the B. superciliosus, is distin- 

 guished by a particularity which takes place in but 

 very few fishes, except those of the cartilaginous 

 tribe; being viviparous, the ova hatching internally, 

 and the young acquiring their perfect form before 

 the time of their birth. Not less than two, or even 

 three hundred of these have been sometimes ob- 

 served in a single fish. One might be apt to 

 imagine that so great a number of young, confined 

 in so small a space, might injure each other by the 

 briskness of their motions ; but this is prevented 

 by the curious disposition of fibres and cellules 

 among which they are distributed, as well as by 

 the peculiar fluid with which they are surrounded. 

 When the fish is thus advanced in its pregnancy, it 

 is scarcely possible to touch the abdomen without 

 causing the immediate exclusion of some of the 

 young, which are immediately capable of swim- 

 ming with great vivacity : their relative size may 



