fin begins at the vent, and ends at the tail, but is not joined with it; the rays of the back and anal fins are numerous, but the softness of these, and the thickness of the skin, hinders 'them from being counted with exactness; the points of the back-fin, anal, and tail, are white, the rest dusky; the pectoral fins are rounded, broad, and of a brown colour; the ventral small, thick, and fleshy, ending in four points, or cirrhi ; the body, to the vent, is roundish; the belly, from the throat, growing suddenly very prominent, continuing so to the vent, where it grows smaller to the tail; beyond the vent the body is pretty much compressed; the colour of the head is dusky; the back and sides yellow, which, becoming lighter by degrees, loses itself in the white of the belly; the side line was scarce discernible, but run nearer the back than the belly, till about the middle of the fish it bent a little downwards, and run straight to the tail. The measures of the specimen from which this description was taken, were the following:-The whole length twenty inches and a half; the greatest breadth four and a half, which was taken at the end of the pectoral fin ; at the vent, four inches; something more than half way from the vent to the tail, two inches; at the tail, one inch and a quarter; the length of the head, four inches; from the point of the nose to the beginning of the back-fin, six; length of the back-fin, thirteen; from the point of the lower jaw to the vent, eleven inches; the anal fin, eight; tail something more than two. There is no fish more common on the coast of Shetland than the tusk. It is there caught among the ling, and in ap CC pearance differs not much from it, only it wants the first fin of the back, which the other has; nor does it grow the length of the ling, the largest tusk I have heard of not being above three feet and a half long. GENUS XIII.—THE BLENNY. Gen. Char.-Head blunt at the end, and very steep; body smooth and slippery; teeth slender; body compressed sidewise; ventral fins consisting of only two united rays; one dorsal fin; six branchiostegous rays. Species 1.-The Spotted Blenny. Gunnellus Cornubiensium, nonnullis Butter-Fish, q. d. Liparis, Wil. Icth. 115. Raii Syn. Pisc. 144. Blennius Gunnellus, Lin. Sys. 443. Brit. Zool. 171. Orc. Swordick. It THE Spotted Blenny is found very frequently under stones at the low water-mark, or above it, among the sea-ware. is very tenacious of life; can endure to want water almost for the time the tide is down. A coarse fish, and seldom eaten ; used sometimes for bait, but this is only when the fishermen can get no better. This fish is seldom found above six inches long; the body much compressed, which has got it the name of Swordick, or Sword-Fish, in Orkney. The back-fin begins near the head, and runs almost to the 1 tail; on the top of the back are ten round black spots, encircled with white, which reach the lower half of the back-fin, and one at the beginning of the tail. The anal fin begins at the vent, and runs to the tail; the tail is rounded, and of a yellow colour. The colour of the whole fish is olive; the belly a dusky white. Species 2.-The Purple Blenny. THE appearance of this is so much like that of the former, that I should almost take it for a variety, were it not that the colour is different, being in this reddish purple; the fins lightest, and of the same shape and size of the former. It likewise wants the spots on the back the other has; instead of eleven in the former, this has only a single one, and that placed near the beginning of the back-fin. In other circumstances, both of its shape and way of life, it agrees altogether with the for mer. Species 3.-The Viviparous Blenny. Guffer or Eelpout, Sib. Scot. 25. Mustela vivipara Schonveldii, Wil. Icth. 122. Raii Syn. Pisc. 69. Blennius viviparus, Lin. Sys. 443. Brit. Zool. 172, tab. 10, fig. 1. Orc. Greenbone. FOUND, with others of the genus, under stones, tang, &c. at the low water-mark, in great numbers, from six inches to ten in length, but the thickness scarce proportionable, having an eel-like form; hence, I suppose, the name Eelpout. It is not so coarse as the other blennies; the fish tastes much better, and fatter; the back-bone is a most beautiful green, which gives it its Orkney name. The colour on the back is a dirty yellow, clouded with brown and black; the sides lighter, and more inclined to greenish; the belly whitish; the back-fin spotted. The pectoral fins are broad, and rounded at the end; the ventral fins in this, as well as the rest of the genus, small and pointed; the anal begins at the vent, and runs to, and unites with the tail; the colour yellow. The tail is small, ends in a point something similar to that of an eel. Contrary to the nature of other fishes, these bring forth their young alive, and ready to perform every function for the preservation of life. When I first observed this, I put a number of the small fishes in a tumbler-glass of sea water, and kept them alive for many days, changing the water every tide. They grew a good deal bigger, and continued very lively, till in a hot day, forgetting to refresh them with clean water, they died to the last fish. While they were very young and transparent, they made excellent objects for the common microscrope, for viewing the circulation of the blood; do not answer well in the solar, as the heat of the enlightening lens soon kills them, or renders the skin dry and opaque, thereby hindering much the effect of that most surprising instrument. 3. Thoracic Fish.-The Ventral Fins placed beneath the Pectoral. GENUS XIV.—THE GOBY. Gen. Char.-Eyes placed near each other; four branchiostegous rays; ventral fins united. Species 1.-The Black Goby. Sea-Gudgeon, Rock-Fish, Wil. Icth. 206. Raii Syn. Pisc. 76. Gobius niger, THE Black Goby is found pretty frequent among the deep holes about the point of the Ness of Stromness; seldom seen here above three or four inches long; the colour blackish, or |