176 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



When on table, the whole skin and scales turn off 

 without difficulty ; and the muscle beneath, saturated 

 with its own natural juices, which the outside cover- 

 ing has retained, will be found of good flavour." 



It is not perhaps very generally known that cer- 

 tain fishes ruminate. What, chew the cud like a 

 cow? somebody exclaims in amazement: even so; 

 the pharyngeal teeth would be of little use were it 

 not for this. " The fishes which afford the best 

 evidence of this ruminating action are the Cyprinoids, 

 Carp, Tench, Bream." 



The next we take is of the family of the Wrasses, 

 or Itock-fishes, the Labridcc, so called from their 

 thick puffy lips : Latin labrum, a lip. This is the 

 Ballan Wrasse, Labrus bergylta. The colours of this 

 species vary considerably; the French call it La 

 Fieille comnncne, and according to the predomi- 

 nating lint, distinguish it as La Vieille rouge, La 

 Vieille verte, or La Vieille jaune. This, our Ballan 

 Wrasse, has the back and greater part of the body 

 of a dark green, the belly of a lighter colour, passing 

 almost to white, the rays and margins of the fins, 

 and the margins of the scales, of a fine orange-red — 

 "leur fond vert, varie de rouge ou de jaune, leur a 

 fait donner le nom de Per roquet- de-mer." It is a 

 beautiful rich-looking fish when it first comes flash- 

 ing out of the sea alive. It is sad that we cannot 

 preserve the glowing colours of the fishes we catch ; 

 the rich red gold, the dazzling glittering silver, the 

 bright scarlet, the emerald-green, the rose-pink, the 

 indescribable and endless shades of blue and brown 

 and purple, and all the refulgent sheen of the finny 

 tribes, which fairly vie with the splendours of the 

 summer -evening cloud stained with the dying 

 glories of the setting sun ; alas, with all our arts 

 we cannot fix them; they all change or fade, and not 

 a few of them vanish almost instantaneously. The 

 very best prepared examples in our museums are 

 but poor parched and withered mummies, and the 

 pickled corpses put up in spirits have a fatal ten- 

 dency to turn to a dull drab, with here and there 

 perhaps a few faint traces of the gorgeous hues they 

 bore in life. Eor whom is all this bravery put on? 

 whose hearts are gladdened and whose eyes delighted 

 by all the dazzling beauty of these fast-fleeting 

 colours of the denizens of the deep ? We know 

 that their most brilliant war-paint is donned in the 

 nuptial season ; but can finny flirts and scaly 

 coquettes whose pulses are quickened by the radiant 

 hues of glowing colours, also distinguish with 

 aesthetic appreciation the exquisite refinement of 

 shade, the delicate nuances of tone and tint, and all 

 the ever-changing splendours of the hues of Iris ? 

 How much hidden, and as it were wasted beauty, is 

 there in this wondrous world of ours : for whose 

 eyes do the waxen petals of the night-flowering 

 plants unfold on the lone storm-beaten peaks of the 

 vild Rocky Mountains ? Do they charm the eye or 

 speak to the heart of the Grizzly bear and the Soli- 



tary wolf; and do the Coyote, the Owl, and the 

 Rattlesnake rejoice over the gold and silver stars 

 and cups and bells of the wild flowers of the prairie ? 

 Surely these beauties are not thrown away; there is 

 no waste in Nature's house : take even the common 

 grasses of the fields, and the microscope will show 

 us that they bear fairy flowers of pearl and crystal, 

 powdered and spangled with dainty gems Queen Mab 

 herself might covet ; and that their forms (invisible 

 to the unassisted eye) are not surpassed in loveliness 

 by the superb Magnolia or the queen of the water- 

 lilies. Whose minds have been purified, whose souls 

 lifted up by the contemplation of these fairest of 

 earth's offspring through all the myriad ages that 

 have flown? Were they created merely in anticipa- 

 tion of the lenses of the optician ; and if nothing 

 more than "essential organs," or lures to attract the 

 Hymenoptera, by sight or smell, to visit them and 

 insure the transfer of the pollen, then why so mar- 

 vellously lovely ? 



But, revenons a nos poissons. The ingenious 

 jewellers of Venice utilized the metallic lustres of 

 the fish, and from the inner lining of the scales of 

 the "Bleak," Cyprinus alburnus, a freshwater member 

 of the Carp tribe, they manufactured imitation pearls 

 with great success : we believe the glittering pig- 

 ment of the under side of the mackerel is still used 

 for the same purpose in Paris, and perhaps in 

 London. 



Can we not devise some method of preserving the 

 colours ? At p. 161 of Science-Gossip for 1867, a 

 tribute of admiration is paid to the preserved fishes 

 shown by Captain Mitchell at the Paris Exhibition. 

 How did he preserve them ? It will be a pity if a 

 good process remains a secret. 



Fig. 95. The Corkwing Wrasse, \ nat. size. 



Here is another Wrasse, comparatively rare, — the 

 Corkwing, a gorgeous little fellow, wearing much 

 the same colours as the Ballan, but banded across 

 the back, and maculated as to the fins with royal 

 purple, and stamped with a characteristic round 

 spot on the lateral line close to the caudal fin; a 

 charming little stranger for the tank. Ah me, these 

 other two, his brethren, we must bottle off in spirit, 

 and they will turn to nobody knows what colour in 

 five minutes. 



Next comes a " Whiting Pout," Morrkia lusca, 

 "the Bib," "'Pout," or "Whiting Pout :" it is one of 

 the extensive and most valuable Cod family, Gadidce, 

 which includes the common Cod, the Haddock, the 

 Whiting, the Pollack, the Hake, and the Ling, all most 

 important food-fishes ; besides others of less note. 



