The Hiftory 0/" ANIMALS. 271 
one another: the iris is fmall, and of a reddifh yellow ; the pupil is fometimes green, 
fometimes bluifh or yellowifh, and is not perfectly round, but of a fomewhat oval 
figure : the body is largeft near the head, and thence gradually becomes fmaller to the 
tail j it is rounded in the anterior part, but from the anus to the tail it is fomewhat 
compreffed : the lateral line runs ilraight, and is nearer the back than the belly, and 
above this line near the back there is a feries of tubercles reaching from the head to the 
tail 5 they are fmall, rough, of a roundifh figure, and fomewhat depreffed, and form 
two lines; there are more than forty in the upper line, which is the longed: 5 and in 
the under one, which is fhort, there are no more than fourteen: thefe are, in their 
fubflance and ftru&ure, very like the tubercles on the head, but they are fmaller than 
thefe : under the lateral line there alfo are a number of tubercles, but they are fmaller 
than thefe, and of an oblong or lunated figure ; they are about forty in number, but 
that is not determinate, any more than in thofe above the lateral line, which are 
fometims more, fometimes fewer: the fkin between thefe tubercles is perfectly fmooth, 
or without fcales: the colour is greyifh or hoary, fometimes a very dufky blackifh, 
but there always are a number of black, tranfverfe lines on the fides ; the belly is 
white ; the fins are often variegated with fpots of black : there are two fins on the 
back ; the firft of thefe is lower and fmaller, and has ufually nine rays; fometimes 
however it has eight, or only feven, fometimes ten; thefe are fomewhat ridged, but 
not prickly : the hinder back fin is longer and taller ; it has fourteen, and fometimes 
fifteen, rays; thefe are two inches long, and are undivided at the top; the firft and 
the laft are the fmalleft; the middle ones are the longed, and they are all fcabrous or 
rough on the outfide : the pedtoral fins are very large and broad, and have each fixteen 
or feventeen rays; thefe are two inches long in the full-grown fifh, and are undivided 
at the extremity : the ventral fins are placed diredtly under the pedtoral ones, but a 
little nearer to the anus; they have four undivided rays: the firft of thefe is the fmall¬ 
eft, and adheres to the fecond in fuch a manner, that they form, as it were, only one ; 
the pinna ani has fourteen rays: the tail is nearly even at the extremity, and has twelve 
long rays; the gills are four on each fide, the three upper ones larger than the fourth ; 
the ftomach is large and ftrong, and there are feven appendages to the pylorus: the 
vertebrae are forty. 
Jt is a native of the Northern Seas; it is very frequent about the coafts of Denmark, 
Norway, and Sweden. I have alfo feen it caught near Scarborough, but it is not 
common in our feas ; it feeds on fea-infeds and fmall fifh. 
■% 
Cottus alepidotus capite polyacantho , maxilla fuperiore 
paulo longiore. 
The Cottus without fcales ? with many fpines on the head , 
and with the upper jaw longejl . 
The head of this fpecies is very large, appearing much difproportioned to the body; 
the furface of it is very unequal, and there are a number of fpines on different parts of 
it: fome of thefe are fhorter, and refemble only tubercles; others are longer, tender¬ 
er, and very (harp-pointed ; the whole head is of a depreffed form, broad, in pro¬ 
portion to it’s perpendicular meafure : the body is large toward the head, but becomes 
gradually fmaller, all the way to the tail; the anterior part of the body is depreffed, but 
the hinder part, from the anus to the tail, is compreffed : the belly is broad, and 
fomewhat prominent: the back is of a deep brown ; the fides are of an olive brown, 
with fome tranfverfe ftreaks of black, and the belly is much paler : the lateral line 
runs ftraight, and is nearer the belly than the back. 
We have this fpecies in confiderable plenty on our own coafts. Jonfton calls it Scor- 
pius marinus; Schoneveldt, Scorpius marinus vel Scorpius noftras; Ray, Willughby, 
and Aldrovand, Scorpaenas Bellonii fimilis; and we, the Father-lafher, a ftrange un¬ 
meaning name, given it by the children who play about the fhores in Cornwall, but 
the only one our language has for it. 
tafljet. 
Coitus 
