Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/181

Rh The dorsal is generally emarginate, or interrupted in its outline near the middle. Most of the species are furnished with a fringed appendage over each eye, and some have another on each temple. The intestines are wide and short.

These little fishes live in small troops, in the shallow pools and channels among the rocks of the coast, swimming and leaping to and fro with much agility. Their smooth lubricated skin, and general softness of flesh have been already adverted to. They are abundant enough, but their minute size renders them unworthy of attention, and in this country, we believe, they are never cooked; in Italy, however, they are fried in numbers, like sprats in England, and eaten by the poorer classes. They are said to feed on small crustacea and other animals, which they obtain from among the weeds in which they hide. Mr. Couch found in the stomach of one various bivalve shells, parts of a star-fish, the common jointed coralline, and brown sea-weed.

Cuvier states that many of the Blennies are viviparous, and though we are not aware that this is the case with any of the British species of the restricted genus before us, we have one of a genus closely allied, which bears the title of Viviparous Blenny (Zoarces viviparus, .) from this remarkable habit. It is not uncommon on the rocky shores of Scotland, and is occasionally brought, though by no means of inviting appearance, to the Edinburgh market. The female produces her young alive and fully formed, but varying in size, as it appears, (though this circumstance is certainly strange,) according to