THREE-BEARDED IiOCKLING. 
553 
wanting. The pylorus is furnished with 12 — 16 cieeal 
appendages. The peritoneum is black, but the inside 
of the mouth and the walls of the branchial cavity 
are white. 
The coloration is of a more or less light reddish 
brown (chestnut-colour) or even grayish yellow, darkest 
on the back and fading down the sides into the red, 
yellow, or sometimes white colour of the belly. The 
head, the sides of the body, the caudal tin, and the 
pectoral fins are marked with irregularly scattered, 
roundish spots of darker brown or even of black, and 
at the top of the back we find a row of numerous, 
dark, selliform transverse spots, which extend out over 
the dorsal fin. The upper (outer) part of this fin may 
also be marked with a row of roundish spots of the 
same dark colour. The rest of the fins are of a more 
or less deep red or orange, at least at the margin. 
The whole of this marking of spots is generally want- 
ing, however, in young Rocklings, which are of a plain 
reddish brown or marked with lighter (yellow) spots, 
the belly being lighter, sometimes white. 
The fry of the Three-Bearded Rockling ( Couchia 
argenteola) resemble the other Conduce, but are distin- 
guished from them by the number of the barbels. The 
Swedish Eugenie Expedition found these fry in the At- 
lantic north of Madeira, and Captain Werngren brought 
home specimens from the Mediterranean. All these spe- 
cimens, between 27 and 33 mm. long, have only 16 — 18 
rays in the pectoral fins, and thus, according to Lut- 
ken’s remarks, should be assigned either to Onos fuscus 
or to Onos mediterraneus , provided that the number of 
rays in the pectoral fins be constant even in the fry. 
The very earliest stages, before the first dorsal fin is 
distinctly developed, but still some time after the ap- 
pearance of the nasal barbels, are distinguished, accord- 
ing to Lutkex, by two short, erect spines on each 
temple, a characteristic which led Kroyer to label the 
specimens in Copenhagen Museum with the name of 
Motella quadricornis. In specimens 27 mm. long, how- 
ever, these spines have already disappeared. 
The Three-Bearded Rockling was added to the 
Scandinavian fauna in 1832 by Professor S. Nilsson, 
who found it within the island-belt in the neighbour- 
hood of Bergen; and in this district, according to Pro- 
fessor Collett, it now and then appears during sum- 
mer in the market. In 1867 Dr. P. Olsson saw it 
taken off Aalesund; but even on the coast of Norway 
it must be regarded as fairly rare. On the coast of 
Sweden there is only one recorded instance of its oc- 
currence". On the 22nd of November, 1886, Dr. Stux- 
berg received a specimen that had been caught in the 
island-belt of Gothenburg. The species has its true 
home on the coasts of England and South-western Eu- 
rope and in the Mediterranean. It generally lives in 
shallow water, even between the tide-marks, where the 
bottom is rocky and thickly overgrown with seaweed. 
Here “it threads its way with great ease and rapidity" 
(Buckland), or hides itself among the seaweed or under 
stones. It is also found, however, on a weedy bottom 
of ooze and in from 30 to 40 fathoms of water. Its 
food is composed of crustaceans, small fishes, Annelids, 
and mollusks. It takes a hook readily; and in some 
parts of England, according to Couch, it is regarded 
as a delicacy; but it is generally eaten, says Day, only 
by the poor 6 , as it acquires a far from pleasant smell 
soon after death. Its spawning-season seems to occur 
during winter and in spring. In October Thompson 
met with a male with well-developed testes, while 
Couch found the species ready to spawn at the end 
of April. 
“ A statement that the species had once before been acquired by Gothenburg Museum, is due, according to Dr. Stuxberg, to some 
mistake. 
5 This is also the case in Italy, according to Ninni ( Esp . intern, di Pesca, Berl. 1880, Sez. Ital., Catal., p. 180). 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
70 
