348 FISHES. 



vertical black bands. The body is practically without scales, 

 and the lateral line is distinct throughout. This bullhead 

 can survive some time out of water. The spines that arm 

 the head have been the death of grebes and kingfishers, 

 as the fish instinctively inflates its head whenever a bird 

 attempts the difticult task of swallowing it. Buckland 

 mentions, indeed, a case in which one of the next species 

 choked a fisherman. Of little account in this country, 

 I have tasted it frequently in German towns, where they 

 convert it into a soup, and it is also in some demand for 

 bait. The miller's thumb is said to be injurious to trout 

 spawn and fry, but its food consists for the most part of 

 larvae. The male is alleged to defend the eggs and young 

 with great valour, but evidence of this appears to be want- 

 ing. In parts of Ireland this fish is exceedingly rare. 



The Sea -scorpion is a shore bullhead, and is found 

 more particularly in the vicinity of estuaries and some 



tSea-scor- ^^^^^^ ^^^^Y ^P rivers. It is very common in 

 pion or the Baltic ; and there were days when, spin- 

 Stmg-fish. jjjjjg jjg^if ^ hiHq above Rostock (or some ten 



miles from the sea), nothing else could have a chance 

 with the bait, so many sea-scorpions were round it. This 

 fish, which is dark grey, the underparts white with yellow 

 spots and streaks, and often having some white and red 

 markings on the fins, does not in our waters exceed a 

 length of 15 inches, but there is on the coast of Green- 

 land a form, practically identical, which grows to a length 

 of 6 feet. Our fish appears to spawn about December, 

 the spawn adhering to stones and weeds ; and the father 

 is, as in the last species, credited with strong parental 

 instincts. 



A smaller and more abundant fish than the last, found 

 t Father in the rock pools between the tides, and feed- 

 Lasher, ing on small fishes and crustaceans, the Father 

 Lasher recalls in general appearance the flatheads that give 



