yarrell’s blenny 
235 
of life it bore no inconsiderable general resemblance to the 
Butterfish, presently to be described, the outline proceeding 
straight from the eyes to the tail, and the front descending 
from the eyes to the lips in a circular form. When dead 
this example assumed a rigid spasm, and then the head was 
bent upward, and the tail was bent from a right line, T.he 
longer tufts between the eyes when alive appeared short, and 
were directed forward, but in death they became stretched up 
and erect. The dorsal fin was not actually joined to the tail, 
but the anal was united to it. The threads in front of the 
dorsal fin were numerous; ventral fins short. Instead of being 
branched like a deer’s horn, the processes above the eyes were 
tufted like a cluster of grapes; the first rays of the dorsal fin 
were not particularly lengthened, and were only slightly tufted. 
The colours were beautiful, the general tint being pale yellowish 
pink. The large prominent eye encircled with a dark border, 
from the lower portion of which a band passed down to the 
angle of the mouth. Dorsal fin lighter than the body and 
speckled. Body with bands, mottled. A whitish dash on the 
upper border of the lateral line, and nine whitish heart-shaped 
spaces along the sides to the tail near the dorsal fin, to which 
they are joined by a narrow band. It proved to be a female, 
and when alive and at rest it had a disposition to turn its 
tail forward by bending the body, in reference to which habit 
Mr. Peach observes of an example which he kept alive, that 
it t^enerally rested with its tail turned towards its head, the 
anal fin being laid flat, outside, on the part turned round, as 
if to support it. It even seemed, after a time, as if capable 
of being tamed; and its eyes were often seen turned in opposite 
directions, as has often been noticed in other fishes of kindred 
families. Besides a power to turn the tail on either side, it 
was also able to lift it up and depress it. 
The difference of colour in these examples, as here noticed, 
cannot be regarded as marks of sex, since in a pair afterwares 
examined, one of which was a male and the other a female, 
the form and colour were closely like those of the specimen 
first described. In the mottled fish the dorsal fin contained 
fifty-one rays, the anal thirty-eight, pectoral fourteen, caudal 
sixteen, and the ventral three; but of the branchial rays six 
were counted, while in the others only five appeared. 
