r - •' 



7/k? Descent of Man. 



Paet II. 



has been called the gemmeovs dragonet " from its brilliant gen> 

 " like colours.'' "When fresh caught from the sea the body is 

 yellow of various shades, striped and sjiotted with vivid blue on 

 the head ; the dorsal fins are pale brown with dark longitudinal 

 bands; the ventral, caudal, and anal fins being bluish-black. 

 The female, or sordid dragonet, was considered by LinnaBus, and 

 by many subsequent naturalists, as a distinct species ; it is of a 

 dingy reddish-brown, with the dorsal fin brown and the other 



*a><^. 



Fig. 29. Callionymus lyra. Upper figure, male ; lower figure, female. 

 N.B. The lower figure is more reduced than the upper. 



fins white. The sexes differ also in the proportional size of the 

 head and mouth, and in the position of the eyes ; 12 but the 

 most striking difference is the extraordinary elongation in the 

 male (fig. '29) of the dorsal fin. Mr. W. Saville Kent remarks 

 that this " singular appendage appears from my observations 

 " of the species in confinement, to be subservient to the same 

 end as the wattles, crests, and other abnormal adjuncts of 

 the male in gallinaceous birds, for the purpose of fascinating 



tt 



i< 



M I have drawn up this description from Yarrell's ' British Fishes,'voI. \, 

 183S, pp. 2G1 and 266. 



