234 
\ARRELT,'S BLENNY. 
which are shot in the ground it frequents among rocks and 
stones. There can be no doubt hut that it enters these pots 
for the sake of the bait; but there have been found in its 
stomach the worms which inhabit tubes, f Tubicolm,) and also 
the sponge, f Halichondria carnosa.J 
An example of Yarrell’s Blenny, taken in the middle of 
July, measured in length seven inches and a quarter, which 
appears to be the largest size to which it grows. Its greatest 
depth, exclusive of the fins, was one inch and an eighth. The 
front of the head drops suddenly from the eyes to the mouth; 
cheeks full; lips tumid; the lower jaws a little the longest; teeth 
regular, closely set, and small. Eyes near each other, and 
high on the head; between them and the lip a slender process, 
and on the upper part of the head in front two elevated 
processes, which are tipped with a tuft of fibrils; also imme- 
diately above the eyes a pair of much longer branched processes, 
nearly three fourths of an inch in length, the branches being 
on the top and posterior border. Separate fine threads along 
the nape to near the dorsal fin; in a rather deep depression 
between the anterior and longest processes is a pair of nasal 
orifices. The belly is protuberant; the body compressed, and 
its breadth diminished but little as it approaches the tail; 
covered with fine scales, each marked with a pale rim of 
colour. Lateral lines two, the uppermost taking its beginning 
from a row of pores, which pass backward from the superior 
bound of the cheek, and it soon disappears. The dorsal fin 
single, even, and joined to the root of the tail; first rays 
longest, and the tip of the first with a double tuft of tendrils, 
— a slight formation of the same on the second ray, — fifty rays 
in all. Anal fin from the vent to the tail, with thirty-five 
rays. Tail round, the rays sixteen. Pectoral wide and round, 
with fourteen rays. The ventral fin had three soft rays, and 
in other examples these rays have not only varied from two 
to four, but the rays themselves were branched, contrary to 
what is found in the true Blennies, with short and heavy 
bodies. The colour of this example was an uniform reddish 
brown, lighter on the belly. 
When this fish dies it is with a spasm which tends to distort 
the head and neck. A description and figure are therefore 
added of an example that was kept alive. In this condition 
