558 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
depth of 20 — 30 fathoms in Gullmaren. It feeds on 
small fishes, mollusks, and crustaceans; one of the Royal 
Museum specimens has its stomach distended by a 
shrimp that it has swallowed. The spawning-season 
proper seems to occur in winter and spring, though it 
may begin as early as August, for at the end of this 
month Cornish found a gravid female with partially 
ripe eggs. According to Couch a the Five-Bearded Rock- 
ling builds a kind of nest with the common coralline 
( Corallina officinalis ) for its eggs. The eggs and the 
sprigs of seaweed are packed one after another in a 
hole or rocky crevice at low-water mark. Brook 6 has 
already remarked, however, that this account of the 
laying of the eggs may be due to a confusion with 
some other species, for he found the eggs floating about 
in the water of his aquarium, where he had some fe- 
males of this species which spawned in May and June. 
M’Intosh and Prince 0 , on the other hand, found the 
eggs floating in the sea between March and May, and 
in their aquarium the females spawned in April. It 
is at the middle of May too, according to Couch, that 
the fry first appear at the surface, staying there until 
the end of autumn. During this season they live in 
the same manner as the other Coucliice, being lively 
and, for their size, voracious, but cautious and always 
ready to take shelter under any floating object, often 
among the tentacles under the disk of a jelly-fish. 
Birds and fishes chase them eagerly, and as food for 
larger fishes they are not without importance. The 
full-grown Rocklings also contribute to the support of 
the large bottom-fishes; but on account of its small 
size, in Scandinavia at least, the Five-Bearded Roclding 
is of little importance as human food. Parnell tells 
us, however, that at midsummer it is pretty often taken 
on fhe hook in the Firth of Forth and brought to Edin- 
burgh for sale, being exposed in the market with Cod- 
lings and Whiting, and forming a very palatable dish 
when fried. 
Genus RANICEPS. 
Two dorsal fins, the anterior being, however, rudimentary and hardly distinguish able, with only three rays; one 
anal fin. Ventral fins with 6 rays, the first two ending in long, free, curved tips. Cardiform teeth on the inter- 
maxillary bones , in the lower jaw, and on the head of the vomer. Branchiostegal rays 7. 
This genus contains only one species, which is 
further distinguished by a large, broad, depressed head, 
brachiate pectoral fins (with long base, set, as it were, 
on a short shaft), a short barbel under the chin, and 
the absence of carnal appendages (though we find rudi- 
mentary traces thereof) round the pylorus. It also 
differs, though with individual variations, from the 
other genera of the Gadoid family in the ciliation of 
the scales at the margin. 
The name of Raniceps was given the genus by 
Cuvier (1817). Two years after, in 1819, IIollberg 
bestowed upon it a name of Greek derivation ( Batraco - 
cephalus ), but of the same meaning (Frog’s-head). 
THE LESSER FORKED BEARD OR TADPOLE FISH (sw. matfaren or paddtorsken). 
RANICEPS RANINUS. 
Plate XXV, fig. 3. 
Coloration brownish black, with white edges to the second dorsal fin, at the top of the caudal fin, and in front of 
the anal fin; the free tips of the ventral rays also white. Walls of the mouth and of the pharyngeal cavity ivhite. 
R. hr. 7; * D . 3 1 6 1 — 67; A. 55 — 61; P. 21 — 23; V. 6; U. | Syn. Lesser forlecl-beard ( Barbas minor Cornubi amis'), Jagg .apud 
31 — 35; Vert. 44 — 45. j Raium, Syn. Meth. Pise., p. 164, fig. 8; Blennius fuscus, 
« Fish. Brit. LI., vol. Ill, p. 109. 
6 Journ. Lin. Soc. London, Zool., vol. XVIII (1885), p. 298. 
c Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb., vol. XXXV, part. Ill, p. 832. 
