PLATE XL VII. 
la the latter case, the brown stripes would leave the intermediate 
spaces of a still lighter colour, and in those instances where the fish 
proved to be strongly marked, would give it the same appearance as 
the lineatus of Lepechin. We have observed liparis to differ very 
considerably in colour at different seasons of the year, as wxll as in 
the various stages of their growth. Small specimens have occurred in 
which the sides and belly were white ; in some pale yellow, and in 
others rosy the sides of the head usually partaking of the same tints 
as those of the body. In a fish which we find to be so liable to 
variation, both in respect of its colours and markings, we do not think 
the longitudinal striae on lineatus to be sufficient to characterise it as 
a species distinct from liparis, or even to authorise us in believing lC 
to be any more than an accidental variety of that fish. 
But before we conclude with this opinion, our attention reverts 
to what another author has said of this fish. Bofc in the Nouveau 
Dictionnaire dTlistoire Naturelle, calls this species Le Cycloptere 
Ray6 a un seul rayon a la membrane des branchies, &c. In our 
specimen this, character seemed to exist, there appearing to be really 
only one ray in the gill-membrane, but on carefully inserting the 
end of the finger under the gills, the membrane expanded, and 
displayed seven branchiostegous rays, as in liparis, The specific 
character which Bloch gives for the last mentioned fish, namely* 
the barbiform appearance of the pectoral fins, is also very clearly 
to be observed in both. 
The Unctuous Lump-sucker is a native of the northern parts ct " 
Europe. Those found on our own coasts seldom exceed the leng 
of four or five inches, but such as frequent the shores of Greenland 
and Kamtschatka, are oftentimes of a size, far more considerable 
