224 
BUTTERFLY BLENNY. 
Blennius Bellonii, 
Butterjlij Fish, 
Blennie lAevre, 
Blennuis ocellaris, 
fi <( 
« « 
JoNSTON; tab. 19, f, 15; but he appears to 
have confounded it with the Grqjpies, and 
gives it two dorsal fins; perhaps from a 
casual separation of the membrane, where 
in its perfect condition it is depressed; and 
so depressed that Willoughby remarks, 
without attentive observation this fish 
might be supposed to possess two dorsal 
fins. 
Willoughby; p. 131, Table H. 3. 
Lacepede. Eisso. 
Linn^us. Cuviek. 
Fleming; Br. Animals, p. 206. 
Jenyns; Manual, p. 379. 
Yabkell; British Fishes, vol. i, p. 253. 
Guktueb; Oat. Br. M., vol. iii, p. 222. 
This species is common in some parts of the Mediterranean, 
but, according to Eisso, not in others; and indeed it appears 
to be only locally distributed anywhere. Willoughby found it 
in the markets for sale at Venice, but Lacepede says it is 
indifferent food, to which Swainson adds that it only comes 
to the table of the poorer people of Italy. From the great 
height of its dorsal fin we may suppose that its habits and 
motions are different from those of several others of its genus, 
but they have not been particularly studied. 
In the British Islands this fish is rare, even where it has 
been met with. Montagu was the first who noticed it by the 
capture .in a dredge of three examples on the south coast of 
Devonshire; and Mr. Yarrell described it from an example 
which he obtained among the rocks at the Island of Portland? 
Mr. Thompson has obtained several at Weymouth. In the 
British Museum there is a specimen from Plymouth, which 
was presented to that collection by Lieutenant Spence, E.N., 
who employed his time and skill in preserving the skins of 
the fishes of that neighbourhood; and I am informed by W 
