THE VIVIPAROUS BLENNY.' 
Ill 
it is also in some localities split up and the skin and vertebral column 
removed. 
Of eight specimens from Down, respecting which notes were made by 
me, the largest was 6|^ inches in length. This individual had but 9 dorsal 
spots ; the smallest examined (3| inches) had 13 ; one other had 9 : one, 
12 ; and four of them had each 10 of these spots. 
It is perhaps unnecessary to remark that the number of these spots has 
no reference to the size of the fish. The smallest specimens I have seen 
had as many spots as the largest ; often more. One which I took on the 
Galway coast in July, 1840, 1^ inch long, had 13 spots. 
The fin-rays in two specimens which I examined were : — 
1st specimen — D. 75 ; P. 10 ; Y. 1 -j- 1 ; A. 1 + 39 ; 6.16 ? 
First 5 rays of D. soft; remaining 70 spiny. Pectoral partly orange- 
coloured with several black dots. 
2nd specimen — D. 75, all spiny; A. 42 ? first 4 spiny. 
Capt. Fayrer, R. N., has sent me this species from Portpatrick. 
The Viviparous Blenny, Zoarces viviparus, Cuv., 
Is said to have been obtained on the coast. 
Templeton records “ one specimen found on the coast of Down near 
Donaghadee.” 
I have not seen any Irish specimens of this fish, but when on a visit at 
Twizell House, Northumberland, in the Autumn of 1838, several were 
found at the beach near Bamborough Castle. They were sheltering 
under large stones between tide-marks, as we find Blen. pholis and 
gunnellus. 
The Wolf-Fish, Sea-Wolf, or Sea-Cat, Anarrhicas Lupus , Linn., 
Has in a few instances been obtained. 
Templeton says, in his published Catal., it is “ sometimes met with in 
Belfast market.” The only note which I have seen in his journal relates 
to one specimen obtained there on the 4th April, 1807. On questioning 
an intelligent man who has supplied the market here with fish for the 
last 25 years, and who regularly visits the fishing stations in Down and 
Antrim, I found that this species is quite unknown to him. In January, 
1839, Dr. Jacob, of Dublin, informed me that he once procured a speci- 
men which was taken off Dublin Bay. In the Museum of the It. D. S., I 
have seen a native specimen, as noticed in Zool. Proc. 1835, p. 80. Two 
were obtained from Dingle, by Dr. Ball. 
Information which I received from Mr. Nimmo and Mr. M‘Calla, rela- 
tive to a fish which is sometimes taken on the Ling-lines, far out at sea 
off the coast of Galway, and which the fishermen call Cat-Ling , leads me 
to the opinion that it may perhaps be the A. lupus. 
The Black Goby, Gobius niger * Cuv. and Val., 
Has been taken on the western and southern coasts. 
The British Black Goby, Rock Goby, or Rock-Fish, Gobius 
Britannicus, Thomp., 
( Gobius niger , recent British authors,) 
Has been obtained both on the northern and southern coasts. 
The following notices of the Irish specimens of black gobies, which 
* Mr. M‘Coy described a Gob. fuliginosus, in the 6th vol. of the Annals Nat. 
Hist. p. 403, that seems to me to approach very near this species. 
