BALLAN WRASS. 29 



down opposite the termination of the dorsal fin. This fin 

 begins a little behind the origin of the pectoral, with twenty 

 firm rays, each one tipped with a soft process, the hindmost 

 portion more expanded, having eleven soft rays; pectoral with 

 fifteen; anal having two firm and tipped rays, and ten soft, 

 the two last from one root; ventrals six rays, the first firm; 

 caudal fin thirteen. 



Colour lively, but very various in different individuals, the 

 highest brilliancy very soon declining. Iris of the eye crimson, 

 with a dark or purple border. The body yellowish, orange, 

 or golden; back and top of the head brown; w^hitish or yellow, 

 or mottled with orange on the belly; in some examples a 

 general tendency to green, which is even to be discerned 

 through the flesh. In the younger specimens there is often a 

 beautiful and varied stripe of lighter colour, with touches of blue 

 and pink, from behind the eye to the tail; sometimes blue 

 spots on the tail fin. In the old individuals almost every scale 

 is marked with a round spot of lighter colour, with a border 

 of red, brown, or orange. 



It is probable that in all the Wrasses the teeth are shed 

 with regularity. They are hollow at the root, and, in the 

 Corkwing especially, each one rises through its own membra- 

 nous sheath to supply the place of another that is about to 

 be thrown off. The depression referred to between the eyes 

 forms a cavity that accommodates the retracted action of the 

 complicated apparatus which is connected with the motions of 

 the upper jaw, and which are guided by muscles that act 

 through the means of tendons. A large muscle acts upon 

 the angles of both jaws, to enable them to crush its food, 

 while the curtains which lie across the mouth above and below 

 are supplied with large nerves of sensation, derived from what 

 may be called the facial nerve, and the lowest of the two 

 branches being the largest. The whole structure of these parts 

 points out the existence of a union of much strength with 

 high sensibility of taste and feeling. 



There is reason to believe that the Corkling of Jenyns and 

 Yarrell, Lahrus jjiisilliis, is only a younger condition of the 

 Ballan Wrass. 



