GATTORtTGINE. 
221 
■wliich possess tbe functions of fingers being thus furnished; and 
as one of the larger branches is seen to proceed forward from 
a dilferent source, as concerns the other, we are led to conclude 
that the sense of touch and voluntary motion are equally present 
in these fins. 
The Gattorugine is common in the Mediterranean, where it 
has obtained the name now usually applied to it. We have 
seen that it is also abundant in Cornwall, but it becomes more 
scarce as we proceed eastward or to the north. Mr. Thompsoiij 
of Belfast, obtained it on the coast of Ireland, and I have 
received examples from Weymouth, through the kindness of 
William Thompson, Esq., of that place. A specimen in the 
British Museum is marked as having been taken in the Frith 
of Forth, but it is not enumerated among the fishes of Scandi- 
navia, by Professor Nilsson. 
The Gattorugine sometimes exceeds the length of nine inches, 
but the example described measured only eight inches and a 
fourth, and at its greatest depth three inches, which includes the 
breadth of the dorsal fin; the general form short and heavy, 
but growing more compressed and tapering towards the tail. 
Eyes elevated and near each other, with a slight depression 
between them, and above each a fleshy process, which in different 
individuals is more or less divided into branches. The front 
slopes suddenly from the eyes to the mouth; jaws equal, lips 
membranous, gape moderate, teeth fine and regularly set. In 
a single example a strong curved tooth was found in front of 
the palate. Cheeks fieshy and full. The back rises high 
suddenly behind the head to the beginning of the dorsal fin; 
the belly protuberant. Behind the vent a short tubular process 
Lateral line bent down as it comes opposite the vent, and 
behind this it disappears. The dorsal fin begins on a ridge 
close behind the head, anterior to the opening of the gills, and 
becomes a little narrower above the vent, then wider but 
gradually lower as it approaches the tail, to the root of which 
it becomes united; as does sometimes the anal fin as it proceeds 
from the vent. Tail more or less round. All the rays of these 
fins fleshy, as are those of the pectoral fin, which is round; 
the rays of the latter projecting beyond the membrane. The 
ventral fins are on the throat, each one divided into two fleshy 
processes, which separate near the root. The colour is usually 
