SUCKING FISHKH. 
1'iS 
tioTis a smaller species under the name of Liparis. This last- 
named species was placed by Artedi in a separate genus, and 
in this he was followed by Gouan, Cuvier, and the generality 
of modern naturalists; but so imperfectly was Linnseus acquainted 
with these fishes, that, although they are known on the coast 
of Sweden, where Nilsson enumerates five kinds, he hesitated in 
defining them. The genus Cyclopterus, as arranged by him 
in his tenth edition, contains only one European species, of 
which he seems only to have felt assured on the authority of 
Willughby; but he makes no mention of Liparis, either as a 
species or genus. 
This family of sucking fishes has been called Discoboles, 
from the circumstance that they bear their circular disk on the 
throat; where it is formed of a border of flattened tubercles 
round a somewhat level middle portion, which is capable of 
expelling the water that might lie interposed between itself 
and the substance on which it seeks to fix itself, and then of 
exhausting all the influence that might prevent the closest 
adhesion. We shall have occasion to mention the strength by 
which this adhesion is accomplished when we speak of the 
separate fishes of this family. 
