BLENNOMOKPIIS. 
211 
The fecundity of this species is apparently not great. 
Krgyer assumes the number of eggs in a full-grown 
female at about 3,000, a number which is insignificant 
compared with that in most other fishes. According 
to the same author the fry have reached by September 
a length of about 90 or 100 mm.; but the Royal Mu- 
seum possesses a specimen 32 mm. long, which was 
taken at a depth of 16 or 17 fathoms on Stora Middel- 
grund in the Cattegat, on the 10th of July, and another, 
50 mm. long, which was caught in Stromstad Fjord in 
December. Ekstrom also remarks that the specimens 
he obtained in spring on the coast of Bohuslan were 
seldom more than from 80 to 100 mm. long, and he 
therefore assumes that Armed Bullheads of this size 
are a year old. 
The Armed Bullhead is occasionally caught in 
Herring-nets or Eel-pots; but as it is not used as food, 
or even as bait for larger fishes, there is no special 
fishery for it. Its flesh, however, is white, firm and 
of good flavour. Its singular appearance has conferred 
upon it several Swedish names. Its usual name in Bo- 
huslan is Bottenmus (Bottom-mouse), corresponding to 
the Danish Havmus. At Kullen, according to Nilsson, 
it is called Kuderusk and at Abekas (southern Scania) 
Hornuggla (Horned-owl). 
(Ekstrom, Smitt.) 
BLENN OMORPHI. 
Body elongated , low and laterally compressed. Dorsal and anal fins long , usually with simple rays, the majority 
of which, on the hack, are generally hard and spinous. Ventral fins ( when present) jugular or thoracic, free 
from each other, but often with a reduced number of rays. Pectoral fins generally with broad based bones, and 
the caudal fin with only few branched rays. Suborbital ring generally without the osseous connexion with the 
preoperculum. Anal papilla sometimes present. Scales generally weak and small, imbedded in the slimy skin; 
or 
Around the old genus Blennius of Arteiji, Gun- 
ther" has collected this series of families, the common 
characters of which appear chiefly in the more or less 
ribbon-shaped body and the numerous spinous rays, 
generally of uniform strength, in the long dorsal fin, 
which is most often continuous, but may also be broken 
up into two or three fins, the two anterior ones, in 
the latter case, being spino us-rayed. This series, how- 
ever, shows traces of forms of transition both to the 
Labromorphs and to the Malacopterygian Physoclysts. 
even wanting. 
Even in some Scandinavian forms, e. g. the genus 
Anarrhichas, we find traces of a transition in the latter 
direction, most of the rays in the dorsal fin being soft 
(but unarticulated), and only the hindmost part of 
the fin retaining a number of spinous rays. In the 
genus Enchelyopus ( Zoarces ) too, the spinous rays are 
confined to the posterior part of the dorsal fin, and 
this analogy to Anarrhichas might well justify the re- 
tention of Enchelyopus within this series. But the 
structure of the soft dorsal rays, as entirely different 
a Syst. Syn. Fain. Acantliept. Fish., Cat. Brit. Mus., Fish., and in Introd. Study of Fish., p. 490 ( Handb . Ichth. p. 348). Gin, 
has a corresponding “Super-family”, Blennoidea, from which he' has, however, excluded the families which by their various irregularities throw 
difficulties in the way of the limitation of the series by fixed characters. The families Cepolidcn and Trichonotidce are referred by Gill to 
his Physoclysti incertce sedis. The Ileterolepidotidce ( Chiridce ) he refers to the Cottomorph series — we have above remarked the Idiopterous 
appearance of these fishes; and even if the osseous counexion which they possess between the suborbital ring and the preoperculum, seems 
scarcely enough to justify their inclusion among the Cottomorphi , still their place in Gill’s system, close to the Labromorplii, is perhaps a 
more suitable one. For the family Mastacembelidce, on the other hand, which Gunther, in spite of the fact that it is separated from the 
rest of the Physoclysts by the absence of any connexion between the shoulder-girdle and the skull, has referred to the Blennomorph series, 
Gill, following Cope (Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., Philad., n. ser. vol. XIV, p. 456), has retained a special suborder, Opisthomi, which he 
has placed nearest to the Eels. For the geuus Enchelyopus too, Gill has formed a distinct subfamily within the family Lycodidce (Smith’s 
Misc. Coll. No. 283, p. 7), a place undoubtedly more natural for this genus. See Proc. Acad. Nat Sc. Philad., 1863, p. 255. 
