YELLOW SKULPIN. 
175 
peculiar manner of feeding, but it proceeds from the fact that 
at the depth of water in which it usually keeps, the hooks 
employed hy fishermen are too large for its mouth. It is more 
likely to he dragged from the bottom by a trawl, and it is 
not unfrequently found in the stomachs of the larger fishes 
that take their prey from the ground, which is its appropriate 
resting-jdace, and on which its flattened shape enables it to 
recline with ease. In this situation also the size and position 
of its ventral fins alFord it support, while, hy a very slight 
motion in them, it is able to raise itself in an instant for 
escape, or to seize any object it wishes to devour. The food 
is laid hold of by a thrusting forward of the upper jaw, the 
Intermaxillary bone of which is capable of being protruded 
through a portion of a circle, and thus of grasping an object 
from below as well as from above, for the lower jaw as well 
as the upper has an extensive motion. It is probable that the 
balancing power of the extended rays of the first dorsal fin 
may be of service in the sudden and rapid actions of the fish 
when it rises from or descends to its place of rest at the 
bottom. 
The Yellow Skulpin is known through the extent of all the 
coasts of the British Islands, at least as far as the Orkneys; 
and it is also found along the coasts of the North Sea and 
the Cattegat, hut it is not met with in the Baltic. It does 
not appear to be in the habit of congregating into companies, 
and seldom comes very near to the land; but it prefers to 
remain at the depth of from twenty to sixty fathoms, at least 
on the western borders of the kingdom. It is observed that it 
does not die speedily when taken from the water, which 
probably arises from the remarkable construction of its gills, 
through which the stream can only find a passage through an 
opening of small size, the direction of which is well fitted to 
a creature which rests habitually on the ground, and the 
breathing of which would be with difficulty if the aperture 
were open only on the under side. 
The example selected for description measured in length ten 
inches and a half, and an inch and three fourths across where 
widest, which was above the gills; head depressed, becoming 
narrower and rounded to the upper lip, which protrudes 
beyond the lower jaw, which is narrow; the teeth fine and 
