HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



145 



SOME SHORE-HAUNTING FISHES. 



No. ir. 



By p. QUIN KEEGAN, LL.D. 



\Continicedfrom page iii.] 



T low-water mark, 

 just let us capsize 

 this moderately 

 large stone that 

 we see here brist- 

 ling with acom- 

 shells, limpets, 

 and dog-winkles, 

 and decked with 

 a flowing dishe- 

 velled profusion 

 of bladder-wrack, 

 &c., away wrig- 

 gles and shuffles 

 some lithe and 

 supple small fish 

 with a most tell- 

 tale array of blu- 

 ish-black spots 

 along his back. 

 He is too slippery 

 a customer for our smooth-skinned digits. He has 

 certainly "slipped away" into some secret, in- 

 accessible nook among the rocks or stones. Touch 

 but his tail, and such a spluttering you never heard ; 

 try to secure him, and you might as well attempt 

 the "tug of war" feat with a greasy rope. This 

 slimy, "agile, and bespotted creature is the gunnel 

 or butter-fish [Munvnoides guttata). You perceive 

 the small head, and the jaws snapping impotently 

 in anger, and the thin and lengthy contour of body 

 with the dorsal fin projecting along the whole length 

 thereof The skin seems smooth, but when magnified, 

 minute scales are seen imbedded in the derm. The 

 presence of this fish under the high and tide-forsaken 

 stone, would indicate the fact that it can subsist 

 for several hours out of water. And here be it 

 observed, that in order that a fish may remain alive 

 when withdrawn out of its native element it is 

 necessary that it should be provided with a large 

 No. 199.— July 1881. 



branchial chamber having small outlets. If sufficient 

 water can be retained therein to float the gill-plates, 

 then oxygen adequate for purposes of respiration 

 can be supplied to that water directly from the air ; so 

 that there can be little doubt, that a fish constructed 

 thuswise, is fully capable of remaining out of the 

 pale of Neptune's sway for several weeks. In the 

 calm and clear rock-pools the gunnel can disport 

 itself with ease and agility, helping itself to marine 

 worms, and the spawn and fry of other fish. Occa- 

 sionally it creeps into some narrow crevice or minia- 

 ture cavern in the rocks, concealing itself there with 

 a veritable hermit-like predilection. The conspicuous 

 spots which decorate the dorsal fin vary in different 

 specimens from nine to thirteen in number, some- 

 times they are wholly wanting. Under the microscope 

 they are observed to consist each of a congregation 

 of coloured dots or granules, and not of a uniform 

 mass of coloured matter, the effect thus being seen 

 to arise from the presence of pigment probably in 

 minute cells or areola rather from partial absorption 

 of light. The mucous secretion of this little fish 

 is evolved in vast quantity and thickness ; and, as 

 in some way directive of its emission, it has been 

 supposed that the sides of the body are furnished 

 with considerably sensitive nerves of touch. 



In various rents and crevices among the rocks, under 

 stones in rock-pools, or crouched beneath some wave- 

 worn boulders of the sea-beach, may frequently be 

 found a lavishly fin-decked little fish with very 

 beautiful eyes, and about five inches long, called the 

 shanny or smooth shan (Blennius phoUs) . Provided 

 with large chubby lips, with long and firm incisor 

 teeth, and a gormandising appetite, it works con- 

 siderable havoc amongst the edible morsels which 

 frequent its chosen haunts. Limpets, mussels, 

 &c., are dexterously chiselled from the rocks, and 

 devoured wholesale. Like most shore-hunting fish 

 it is perpetually encompassed by innumerable enemies, 

 avian or piscine ; but it is very strong, considering 



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