ZOOLOGY. 503 



found along the British coasts, and in some localities some one or other 

 may be quite abundant. The external appearance of some is also very 

 striking-. In the words of Mr. W. Anderson Smith, " Xo brush can give 

 any adequate conception of the brilliance of Lepadogaster bimaculatus 

 from eight to twelve fathoms on scallop ground; or the vividness of 

 coloring of the male of L. Decandolii in the breeding season. The pre- 

 vailing tone of this fish is a somewhat sober-tinted combination of olive- 

 greens and grays. At the breeding time the female is rrnich smaller, 

 less conspicuous in every way, and commonly marked with a band 

 across between the eyes, which somewhat resembles the spectacle mark 

 on the Cornish sucker of Couch— L. gouanii of Day. More timid, more 

 active, slighter built, and more sober-tinted, the female might well have 

 been supposed to be a different species from its brilliant companion, 

 whose bright carmine spots on the dorsal fin commonly give him a suffi- 

 ciently tlistinctive appearance." 



The species of Lepadogaster are known, in common with other repre- 

 sentatives of the family, as well as those of the family Liparididse, as 

 suckers, on account of the development on the breast or the ventral 

 fins as a suctorial apparatus by means of which they attach themselves 

 to stones and other substances, remaining fixed, as for example, a boy's 

 sucker does when likewise applied. This characteristic seems to be a 

 co-ordinate of other organs in the structure of the species so distin- 

 guished. "It would appear," saj-s Mr. W. A. Smith, "as if a slender 

 body and weak vertebrate system had developed" a "habit of clinging 

 to the sea- ware and sea bottom that stimulated the pectoral region to 

 meet the necessities of the situation, and in the case of Lepadogaster to 

 cushion itself, the pectoral fins curving around the swelling bosom of the 

 fish. Between these cushions depressions were left, and these proving 

 very advantageous to the fish by their sucker action, the advantage was 

 pursued by nature and transmitted." Differences prevail and specializa- 

 tion of various kinds supervene. "Although the small cushion-like 

 disks of Cyclopterus and Liparis are the truest suckers, yet the species of 

 Lepadogaster are perhaps the most truly sucker fish. This especially 

 applies to L. Decandolii (Day), which is really a sucker fish all the way 

 forward from the sucker proper itself; two-thirds of its length, and prac- 

 tically three-fourths of its weight and horizontal surface, is a sucker. 

 By sucking up its lower jaw, and allowing its cartilaginous frame- work 

 to rest on any object, the front jaw adds its sucking action to the sucker 

 proper. This is aided by the plentiful discharge of mucus, in which 

 the species emulates the unctuous sucker, L. linearis [Liparis vulgaris^ 



The movements of the sucker-fishes are uncertain, and it is difficult 

 to account for their changes. " At one time they will be comparatively 

 common under stones on a certain piece of foreshore at low spring tide; 

 and again they may be searched for in vain even in the same season of 

 the year." This difference was supposed by Mr. W. A. Smith to be due 

 to the prevalence or absence of rough water. 



