so 



GREEN WRASS. 



GREEN STREAKED WRASS 



Labrits lincatus, DONOVAN; pi. 74. 



JENYNS; Manual, p. 392. 

 " " YABRELL; British Fishes, vol. i, p. !I15. 



WE have seen, when speaking of the Ballan Wrass, that it 



is common to this whole family to be characterized by the 



possession of lively colours, which in each species are liable 



to considerable variation, and of which the intensity will be 



modified according to the nature of the ground they live in, 



or depth of water. But notwithstanding this tendency to vary, 



each species is found to possess a prevailing cast of colour, 



beyond a certain limit of which the variation does not proceed. 



These colours appear to have their seat in the epidermis or 



skin Avhich clothes the body, and especially covers that 



elongated portion of each scale which remains free and not 



overlapped, and which serves to keep the scales in their place. 



Although the colour diffused over the body is intimately 



associated with their health and life, and even with their 



passions, so as to vary with these conditions in a very short 



time, and the Ballan Wrass has been seen to change decidedly 



under the impulse of the fear of capture, yet the prevailing 



bias of these tints appears to be under the dominion of chemical 



materials which are constituent portions of the blood, in the 



same manner as are the leaves of trees under similar conditions. 



Thus, in the Ballan Wrass, where the colours will be red. 



orange, or yellow, brown, blue, or green in different individuals. 



or on different parts of the same surface, yet gradually after 



death these colours will fade or change, and settle down into 



