inclining in some to brown. It is little regarded here; its bulk renders it no object for eating, or any thing else*.

GENUS XV.—THE BULL-HEAD KIND.

Gen. Char-Large flat head, armed with sharp spines; six branchiostegous

rays,

Species 1.-The Father-Lasher.

Scorpænæ Bellonii similis Cornub. Father-Lasher, Wil. Icth. 188. Raii Syn. Pisc. 145. Cottus Scorpius, Lin. Sys. 453. Sib. Scot. 24, tab. 17, fig. 1, 2. Orc. Comper.

THIS fish is found in every pool into which the sea regularly flows, lurking under stones, and under the points of the rocks, watching for any small fish to make its prey of it. The most formidably furnished with armour of defence of any our fishes.

The head and mouth are very large, armed with sharp spines, as are the covers of the gills. These it has a power of erecting, by blowing out its cheeks, and this it does immediately upon its being caught. I once saw a trial of skill between a large one of this kind, and a cormorant. The latter

The Spotted Goby occurs in the same places with the other.-Note in a different hand-writing.

got the head and part of the body of the fish swallowed, but being wounded by the spines, I suppose, attempted to bring it up again; however, this was not practicable, for these being placed the contrary way, hindered its return, and acted the same part as the beard of a hook, in fixing it firmer in the throat of the cormorant, which, after many attempts, and much struggling, was killed by it. When they were taken up,

I opened the bird's throat, and measured the fish, which was one foot and half an inch in length; the spines long, sharp, and strong, bared of the skin, with which they are ordinarily covered, by the struggles of the bird, and the longest fastened in its throat, so that we could not withdraw them till we cut up the belly.

The shape of this fish is conical; the head and shoulders very thick, growing smaller to the tail. The colour is very different, being in some red, most beautifully marbled with a bright white, and other colours, in well-defined spots; in others the ground colour is dusky, and mottled with white and red; in some the belly is a fine white, in others a bright yellow; the fins are all transparent, but spotted with brown or black.

The pectoral fins are very large and broad; the fish erects them when in danger, or when taken; there are two fins, on the back, the first hard rayed, the other soft; the ventral small and long; the anal broadest in the middle, narrowing to each end; the tail round.

This fish is reckoned delicate eating, and those who can

put up with its horrid appearance, prefer it to others which are more beautiful to the eye.

GENUS XVI.—THE DOREE.

Gen. Char-Body very deep, and compressed sidewise; very long filaments iszuing from the first dorsal fin; seven branchiostegous rays.

Species 1.-The Opah.

Opah or King-Fish, Phil. Trans. Abridg. Vol. XI. 879, tab. 5. Piscis maculis aureis aspersus non scriptus, pollices 42 longus, Sib. Scot. tab. 6, fig. 3. Wal. Disc. Orc. 37. Brit. Zool. III. 201. Brit. Zool. Illus. IV. 76, tab. 91. fig. 2.

MR WALLACE, in his Description of Orkney, gives an account of this fish; and I suppose it was from him Sir Robert Sibbald had it, as the plate in both is the very same, and seems to have been made from the same drawing.

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This Mr Wallace describes was taken in Sanda, in the winter 1682; and he tells us several had been gotten there before. According to the description "It was about an ell in length, deep-breasted, and narrow to the tail; the head and fins, "and a stroke down the back, were of a deep blood-colour." "The rest," says Mr Wallace, "was mouse-coloured, having "several whitish spots on the body."

In the British Zoology it is thus described: "The weight "between seventy and eighty pounds; shaped like the sea"bream; the length three feet and a half; the breadth, from "back to belly, almost two feet; but the thickness, from "side to side, not above six inches.

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“The mouth small for the size of the fish, forming a square

opening, and without any teeth in the jaws; the tongue "thick, resembling that of a man, but rough, and thick "set with barbs or prickles, pointing backwards, so that "any thing might easily pass down, but could not return "back; therefore, these might serve instead of teeth to retain ❝ its prey; the eyes remarkably large, covered with a mem"brane, and shining with a glare of gold; the cover of the gills like a salmon.

"The body diminishes very small to the tail, which is "forked, and expands twelve inches; the gill-fins are broad, "about eight inches long, and play horizontally; a little be"hind their insertion, the back-fin takes its original, where "it is about seven inches high, but slopes away very suddenly, running down very near the tail, and at its termination "becomes a little broader; the belly-fins are very strong, and

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placed near the middle of the body; a narrow fin also runs "from the anus to the tail.

"All the fins, and also the tail, are of a fine scarlet; but "the colours and beauty of the rest of the body, which is "smooth, and covered with almost imperceptible scales, beggars all description, the upper part being of a bright green, variegated with whitish spots, and enriched with a shining

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golden hue, much resembling the splendour of the peacock's "feathers; this, by degrees, vanishes into a bright silver, and near the belly the gold begins again to predominate in a lighter ground than on the back.”

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I have only to add, that this fish seems to be very rare, and never caught with a hook, and but seldom thrown ashore, as in seven years I have never heard of a specimen of it got in the Orkneys, so am obliged to others for the above, and even the knowledge of its being an Orkney fish. There are, indeed, very many curious fishes thrown ashore in the winter storms, and many of these, I believe, little known, but scarce ever taken notice of by our people, except they are such as they know to be fit for eating; the others are left for the gulls.

Mr Wallace adds to his description of the Opah, that "the flesh of the half next the head was like beef, and of the "other half like salmon." He has a figure which is the same with Sibbald's, and, for the time in which it was made, tolerably well.

Mr Pennant, Vol. IV. says, it ought to be removed from the genus he had placed it in, in his Zoology, into that of Doree, where I suppose he will place it in the next edition of his valuable work.