286 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
the dorsal muscles are contracted and the opercula 
expanded, as often happens when the fish is thrown j 
into strong spirit, this relation undergoes considerable 
alteration, the disk, the anterior margin of which is 
generally situated almost vertically below the hind 
margin of the eye, now lying almost entirely behind the 
head. The vent, which is situated about half-way be- 
tween the hind margin of the base of the sucking-disk 
and the beginning of the anal fin, is large and broad, 
especially in the female, as its dermal fold also encloses 
the transverse genital opening, behind the vent proper. 
The margin of the genital opening is often verrucose, 
and the genital papilla is distinct in the males, less so 
in the females. The dorsal fin occupies the greater 
part of the back, but varies somewhat in this respect, 
the distance between it and the tip of the snout being 
from 22 to 29 % of the length of the body. The dis- 
tance between its last ray and the caudal fin is equal 
to, or somewhat less than, the least depth of the tail, | 
but this space is generally filled by the fin-membrane, 
and the tips of the last two rays of the dorsal fin, 
when depressed, sometimes extend to the base of the | 
caudal fin. The first rays of the dorsal fin, generally 
to a number of 13, are true, unarticulated, spinous rays, 
and behind this point the rays are simple, but articu- 
lated. The margin of the fin forms a double curve in 
the following fashion: the middle spinous rays are shorter 
than the rays on either side of them", while the rays 
immediately following them are gradually elongated as 
they pass into the soft rays, but the middle soft rays 
are the longest in the whole fin. The caudal fin is 
truncate, but rounded at the corners. Its length varies 
between 1 6 1 / 2 and 19 % of that of the body, or between 
72 and 95 % of that of the head. The anal fin is ana- 
logous to the posterior part of the dorsal fin in form 
and structure, but lies a little further back, the tips 
of its hindmost rays, when depressed, generally ex- 
tending to the base of the caudal fin and sometimes a 
little beyond it. The first 3 or 4 rays are spinous. 
The anal fin is longer in the male than in the female; 
and if its length be measured to the base of the caudal 
fin, the dividing-line between the characters of the two 
sexes, in an adult state, falls at about 45 % of the length 
of the body. One of the results of this circumstance 
is that the distance between the anal fin and the tip 
of the snout is greater in the female than in the male, 
and in this case the dividing-line seems to lie at about 
43 % of the length of the body. 
In adult specimens (Plate XV, fig. 2) the colour 
is generally brownish red, above and in front darker, 
below and behind lighter, and everywhere strewn with 
small, dark spots and dots, which on the fins form 
bands straight across the rays. Lighter varieties also 
occur, however, in which the ground-colour shades more 
or less distinctly into yellow, green or gray. Even 
v. Wright gives a figure of a fairly large young spe- 
cimen (Plate XV, figs. 3 and 4), which was pale yellow, 
with pale red spots; and Malm’s Liparis maculatus is 
a colour-variety of the same description, though more 
strongly tinged with gray. Another form, most com- 
mon among young specimens, but sometimes occurring 
among older ones, is marked with dark lines on the 
lighter ground-colour, which are undulating, melting 
into elliptical rings, or interrupted (Plate XV, fig. 5). 
For this variety we have obtained permission to borrow 
Malm’s figure of his Liparis vulgaris. Light spots on 
a dark ground-colour, on the other hand (Plate XV, 
fig. 6), mark the variety described by Malm, and en- 
titled Liparis Ekst romii. In this variety, when the spots 
become predominant, and the ground-colour appears 
only as a network, we have Couch’s 6 Liparis reticulatus. 
With regard to all these colour-varieties and their inter- 
mediate forms, of which Collett gives eight, we may 
refer the reader to Heincke’s remarks on the variations 
of colour in the Gobies, as quoted above (p. 252). 
Montagu’s Sea-Snail or, the Lesser Sea-Snail, as it 
has also been called, not without reason, is described 
by Day as a comparatively lively fish, but is by no ' 
means destitute of the power or the habit, which it 
shares with the other members of the family, of attach- 
ing itself to some object by means of its sucking-disk. 
At such moments these fishes lie in a coil, with the 
tail curved towards the head, in the position shown in 
our figure (Plate XV, fig. 4). This species is often 
found in this position, hidden among the stones at the 
ebb, either above low-water mark or in very shallow 
water. It is also found, however, in the deepest sea- 
weed-regions, at as great a depth as 20 fathoms at least. 
Its habits are, with this exception, little known. From 
March to July, on the coast of Bohuslan, gravid females 
° In a Californian form, Uyclogaster ( Neoliparis ) mucosas , this bend is so deep that the dorsal fin is apparently divided into two parts 
(Steindachnee, Ichth. Beits. (Ill), p. 54). 
h Fish Brit. Isl ., vol. II, p. 195, tab. CVII, fig. 3. 
