I 
272 The Hifiory of ANIMALS. 
Coitus pinna fecunda dorfi alba . 
The Cottus , w/VA the fecond back fin white . 
This is a very fingular, but not a very beautiful, fpecies: the head is large, flatted, 
or deprefled, irregular in fhape, and armed with a great number of tubercles and fpines, 
efpecially toward the fides; the eyes are large, and ftand near one another on the 
top of the head, and are covered with the common fkin of the head : their iris is of a 
dufky orange colour, and the pupil is greenifh: the noflrils are fltuated a little below 
the eyes, and have each a double aperture; there are feveral feries of teeth in both the 
jaws, and in the anterior part of the palate there is alfo femi-lunar bone, on which 
there ftand a multitude of fmall teeth ; and in the fauces alfo there are two bones 
above, and two below, which are all covered with teeth : the body is broader, de¬ 
prefled toward the head j but toward the tail it is comprefled, and it is throughout 
fmooth and free from fcales, but covered with a mucilaginous fluid : the firft of the two 
back fins is the fmaller, and is of a dufky olive colour, with an admixture of grey : 
the hinder one is larger, and is white; the lateral line runs tolerably firaight, and is 
much nearer to the belly than to the back : the fides are of a yellowifh olive, varie¬ 
gated with tranfverfe flreaks of black ; the belly is paler, and the back ftill darker than 
the fides; the pinna ani is long and low, and the tail large and equal. 
This is frequent in the Mediterranean } and is fometimes, though not fo often, met 
with in the Northern Seas. Rondelet, Aldrovand, Ray, &c. call it Dracunculus; 
Gefner, Dracunculus, Aranei fpecies altera 5 and in another place he defcribes it again 
under the name of Exocasti tertium genus. 
Cottus cirris plurimis corpore oElagono. 
The Cottus , with numerous cirri and an 
o&agonal body . 
%\)t CatapDwtus, 
0? f&ogge. 
This, as well as all the other fpecies of this genus, is a very Angularly fbaped fifh : 
the head is deprefled, but it is convex and angulated on the upper fide, and per¬ 
fectly flat below : the body is very large toward the head, but it grows extreamly 
fmallj as it approaches the tail, it is angulated all the way, and, when ftriCtly examined, 
proves to be of an oCtagonal form} though in the whole, from the little elevation of 
the angles, it at a diflance looks fomewhat cylindric : the back, from the head to the 
extremity of the fecond back fin, is hollowed, or has a depreflion in form of a furrow, 
but from this part to the tail it riles into a kind of ridge, or is fubacute : the belly is 
of the fame figure, or a little more plane and even } the anus is in the middle of the 
belly, or much nearer to the ventral fins than to the pinna ani : the mouth is fmall, 
and is not fituated at the extremity of the head, but fomewhat underneath the tip of 
the roftrum, and is of a lunated or femicircular figure: the upper jaw is hence much 
longer than the under} there are two cirri on the upper jaw, and on the lower there 
are feveral, both at the mouth and under the branchioftege membrane : the noflrils 
have each two apertures, but the hinder are very fmall} the anterior one is tubulofe, 
and is fituated at a great diflance from the other, and very near the extremity of the 
roftrum: the eyes are round, and placed on the fides of the head, not on it’s top, as 
in fame others of this genus} they ftand fo high, however, that they are very near 
one another : the apertures of the gills are moderately large } there are a great number 
of teeth in both the jaws, and in the fauces alfo there are bones covered with fmall 
and fine teeth, but the palate is fmooth: the head is bony, hard, and irregular in fi¬ 
gure } it has eight very confiderable fpines on it} four of thefe ftand on the roftrum, 
two on each fide, of which the hinder ones are bent backwards: the fpace between 
thefe fpines is hollowed, and the apex is bifurcated : the other four fpines are fituated 
on the fides of the head, two on each fide } they are fhort, robuft, and bent a little 
backwards: the hinder part of the head is bifid, and is terminated by two tubercles, 
but they are not prickly. 
The back and fides of this fifh are of a dufky greyifh, variegated with four or five 
tranfverfe blotches on the upper part} the belly is of a yellowifh white : the body is 
oCtagonal, only till the hinder end of the back fin} from thence to the tail it is fexan- 
gular: the whole body is covered with a kind of bony laminse in the place of fcales} 
they 
