56 SCIJENA. 



according to Lacepede, the Sciaena is marked with the posterior 

 spine, without the serrations. 



This fish not unfrequently comes to our waters in the summer 

 and autumn, and sometimes in no inconsiderable numbers. 

 Its great beauty of colour and boldness cause it to be much 

 noticed by fishermen, and from them, in difi^erent seasons, I 

 have obtained some interesting information as regards its 

 habits. For a few years in succession, from 1849, they 

 attended on the boats that were engaged in the Pilchard 

 fishery on the south coast of Cornwall; and although they 

 never attempted to take fishes from the floating nets, the 

 eager Scitena would dart greedily after any that fell out of 

 them or were thrown to it, and in so doing its appetite could 

 scarcely be satisfied. It would approach close to the boat for 

 food; and this fearlessness it was that afforded observers the 

 opportunity of discerning the form, size, and colours of these 

 fishes; and by these means, compared with former opportunities 

 of examination more at leisure, I was enabled to form a 

 definite opinion of their identity. But the endeavours made 

 to catch them proved for the most part unsuccessful, for their 

 strength M^as in proportion to their swiftness and size, so that 

 the best lines were snapped asunder with apparent ease, and 

 they escaped capture, although perhaps they carried away 

 their death with them in the several hooks of the fishermen. 

 I have had an opportunity of examining two examples of 

 this species as they came fresh from the water, and thus had 

 an opportunity of making notes of their colour, Avhich was 

 alike in both instances; but a third which came under my 

 notice in London, in company with my friend Mr. Yarrell, 

 was without all this splendour of tints, so that the fish would 

 scarcely have been recognised except by close examination. 

 A specimen also which is described by Professor Nilsson, in 

 SAveden, was also much plainer in colours, as we shall presently 

 see, and thereby seems to afi^ord a proof that a change of 

 water or season will materially modify the appearance, as we 

 know to be the case indeed with many other fishes. 



It appears that when these fishes come to our neighbourhood 

 it is in scattered companies, and that then their wanderings 

 are not confined within narrow bounds. Mr. Thompson, of 

 Weymouth, had noticed the occurrence of at least a single 



