LABRID^E. 259 



As food. Couch asserts that in Cornwall it is rarely used for this purpose. 



Habitat. From the coasts of Scandinavia, Denmark, and the European shores 

 of the German Ocean and North Atlantic, throughout the Mediterranean, where 

 it is common. 



At Kirkwall in the Orkneys once (Iverach) : five males were taken at Wick 

 in Caithness in June, 1870, in one day on haddock lines : the fishermen 

 asserted they were entirely new to them (Reed). Banffshire rare ; a very pretty 

 specimen was taken off Macduff (Edward) ; October 26th, 1853, two examples 

 were captured in the Moray Firth on a small haddock line set in 14 to 18 fathoms 

 water, on very rough ground ; one was 10 the other 11 inches in length (G. 

 Gordon, Zool. p. 4171). Firth of Forth, according to Neill, but Parnell never 

 saw it there. At North Uist it is found in shoals at the margins of the rocks, or 

 lurking under sea-weeds in rock pools (Mcintosh). In Yorkshire Mr. Cordeaux 

 remembers seeing an example some years ago on the coast, he thinks, at Flam- 

 borough (Yorkshire Vertebrata) ; in 1869 its capture was recorded from Eastbourne 

 (Roper, Ann. and Mag. (4) iv, p. 294) ; September 27th, 1858, an example of 

 L. carneus, Bloch, was taken at Weymouth with shrimps for a bait, and one in 

 October, 1853 (Gosse). Specimens have been received at the British Museum from 

 Plymouth. Common along the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall, while at the 

 Land's End it abounds, but keeps to deeper water than L. maculatus, preferring 

 rough and rocky ground. Leach obtained it from Swansea, Pennant from 

 Anglesea. 



Ireland. It is occasionally but rarely taken round the island. Coasts of 

 Antrim and Down ; Dublin ; Ardmore in county of Waterford ; Youghal in Cork 

 and Kilkee (Ball) ; Galway (M'Calla). 



The largest example I have obtained along the south coast, where it is 

 plentiful, is 13 inches in length. 



17 



