THE UNCTUOUS SUCKER. 
221 
Lump, considering the first only as eatable ; but the difference in colour, and 
also in the quality of the flesh, is only the effect of season, the fine external 
colour, as well as the firmness of the flesh, being lost to the fish for a time by 
the exhausting process of spawning ; it is then by them considered as the worth- 
less blue lump.” 
My observations lead to a different conclusion, viz. that the red lump 
is the male, and the blue lump the female. 
Scotland. From Ballantrae, Ayrshire, an adult specimen was once sent 
me in spring, and in August, 1839, I saw, when there, two specimens 
which had been taken in the salmon nets. 
The Unctuous Sucker, or Sea-Snail, Liparis vulgaris , Flem., 
Is noticed in the Ord. Survey Memoir (p. 14, Notices) simply as ob- 
tained at “Lough Foyle and Larne.” On looking critically, however, to 
eight specimens so named in the Ord. collection, and labelled “ Larne, 
1849,” I considered them all to be Montagu’s sucking-fish, L. Mon- 
tagui. 
Mr. M‘ Calla wrote to me of his having procured L. vulgaris at Round- 
stone, a specimen of which Dr. Ball had purchased from him ; but on 
looking to this I found it also to be L. Montagui. 
It would be desirable if the other specimens alluded to from these dif- 
ferent quarters were closely examined ; but until this be done, and L. 
vulgaris be positively found among them, or be obtained elsewhere, it 
had better be omitted from our Catalogue. 
Montagu’s Sucking-fish, or the Diminutive Sucker, 
Liparis Montagui, Flem., 
Has been taken on every side of the island. 
The following abstract of a paper read by me before the Linnsean 
Society, on 6th May, 1834, appeared in the Phil. Mag., vol. v. p. 300 : — 
“ The Cyclopterus Montagui , Donov., which stands recorded as having been 
taken only on the southern coast of England, and there but by its discoverer, 
was next introduced from the circumstance of a specimen occurring to the 
author on the coast of the County of Down in Dec., 1833. 
“ The difference consisting chiefly in colour and markings between this fish, 
which was mature, and Colonel Montagu’s as described in the Wern. Mem. 
(vol. i. p. 92), was pointed out.” 
I subsequently ascertained that Mr. Templeton had “found an individual 
adhering to a plant of Fucus serratus on the shore of Carrickfergus Bay, 
about two miles below the castle, on the 1st of April, 1807,” although he 
had not determined the species. (See his Catalogue.) 
Since the publication of the above abstract, several specimens have 
been procured on the N. E. coast, and I have seen in Dr. Ball’s collection 
examples from Tramore (County of Waterford) and Youghal; also one 
from Roundstone Bay, County Galway. (See the preceding notes on 
Liparis vulgaris.) 
In April, 1837 and 1838, specimens were kindly sent to me from Port- 
patrick by Captain Fayrer, R. N. In one instance four individuals were 
taken at the same time adhering to sea-weed ( Fuel ), after it had been 
thrown ashore for manure. The largest of these was 3| inches long. Dr. 
Johnston has met with this species on the coast of Berwickshire. 
