22 
TUBFISH. 
With a general tendency to the same form as the Elleck, 
this fish is proportionally much stouter, and reaches a consid- 
erably larger size. I have known it to weigh almost eleven 
pounds. The head is short and stout, broad over the top, 
with a slight depression ,• the eyes separated more than in other 
British species. The sloping from the eyes to the snout 
steep; mouth beneath; gill-covers rough, moderately armed. 
Teeth fine, numerous, wanting at the symphysis. Body round, 
tapering towards the tail; lateral line smooth, prominent, and 
straight; an obscure row of spines on each side of the dorsal 
fins. The pectoral fins are wide, but there is some difference 
in their extension in different examples, sometimes reaching 
to two inches beyond the vent, and at other times scarcely 
extending so far as that organ. I have even found a difference 
in this respect between the two sides of the same fish. 
The colour of the head, back, and sides, without the dorsal 
fins and tail, is red, more or less bright, but sometimes brown 
along the upper portion; yellower below the lateral line, and 
white on the belly. The pectoral fin a lively blue, especially 
on its upper surface and the ends of the rays; anal fin pale, 
tinted with red. 
Fin rays — first dorsal eight, second dorsal seventeen, anal 
sixteen, pectoral eleven, ventral six. The two last rays of the 
second dorsal and anal fins rise from one root; the ventral 
fins large, separate, scalloped, and fastened down with a lateral 
border. But as regards the rays in the root of the dorsal 
and anal fins in the several species of the genus, there is 
frequent variation, and dependence must not be placed on it as 
a specific character. 
