SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



ova". To mtm the wrasses, being fish of good flavour 

 and easy of digestion, are of consideral^ly alimentary 

 value, but in Sweden they are seldom caught in any 

 great quantity, indeed with rod and line only, and are 

 not held in very high esteem. In southern countries 

 the case is dift'erent: and tlie ancient Greeks and Ro- 

 ininis li;ive handed down to us the most elocjuent pan- 

 egyrics of these fish. Their highest esteem seems to 

 linve been given to a ^lediterranean hsh of the genus 

 Sranis, as to wliich Aristotle cites the popular belief, 

 tliJit it was the only fish that chewed the cud after 

 tlie manner of certain land-animals, while Oppian adds 

 tiiiit in its amatory pursuits it is the most ardent of 

 Hslies, insomuch that, by the help of a captive female 

 ;itt;iched to a line, luimbers of males may be enticed 

 into the nets. At the same time it was held to ])e a 

 \"ery sagacious fish, capable even of helping its cap- 

 tured fellows by drnwlng them through the meshes of 

 tlic net. According to Seleuclis of Tarsus it Avas the 

 only fish that indulged in sleep and was for this reason 

 not to be caught at night''. According to Pliny it was 

 introduced into Italy from Greece by Optatus Eli- 

 PERTius during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. 

 Physicians too considered it the best and, most whole- 

 some of food. The fat of its intestinal canal was espe- 

 cially esteemed; and we have a line of the Greek Comic 

 p(jet Epicharmus which states that it was not laAvful for 

 the gods themselves to throw away its excrement". In 

 hot countries the Avrasses are more numerous and easier 

 to catch, and are therefore fished for more assiduously. 

 I'^A'en the savages of the Polynesian islands and Australia, 

 in whose watei's some of the wrasses attain a weight 

 of as nuich as .">() pounds, are not slow to nvail them- 

 selves (jf this source of food. Armed with their long 

 \v(joden spears, wliich are furnished with one or some- 

 times several points, they keep watch upon the rocks 

 for these shy fish niid may be seen standing for hours 

 together silent iind motionless till the moment of the 

 cast comes. The Europeans too, who live in these 

 piirts, set a high value on the large wrasses, and catch 

 them with hook and line, using crabs as bait. In the 

 Mediterranean, acccirding to Elian, the pari'ot-wrasses' 



(a species of Scams) were caught in old times with 

 baits of coriander and parsnip. 



The -wrasse family is especially well represented, 

 as far as variety of form goes, in the East Indian Seas, 

 in connexion with which it has been excellently described 

 by the Dutch naturalist Bleeker. Gunther makes six 

 sub-divisions of the entire family, only two of -which 

 are represented in the Scandinavian Fauna — the ty- 

 pical wrasses (Labrina), which possess the extreme 

 number of dorsal fin rays together with free (not united) 

 jaw-teeth, and the Rainbow-wrasses {Julidina), which 

 have 12 spinous rays at most in the dorsal fin, the 

 jaw-teeth also free, and the pharyngeal teeth not con- 

 fluent. Those of the Scandinavian species which belong 

 to the first subfamily may be distinguished by means 

 of the following scheme: 



I: Top of the head covered 

 with scales, as is also the 

 interorbital space Labriis {Arantholahriis) Palloni. 



II: Interorbital space naked. 



A: Number of scales in the 

 lateral line more than 

 40, above tlie lateral line 

 6 rows of scales at least. 

 a: Number of spinous 



rays in the dorsal fin 



at least 19 Lahrus herggijlta. 



h: Number of spinous 



rays in the dorsal fin 



at most 18 '. Lahrus mixtus. 



B: Number of scales in the 



lateral line at most 40. ^ 



Above the lateral line 

 not more than 4 rows 

 of scales. 



a: Number of spinous 

 rays in the anal fin 



more than 3 Lahrus (Cenirolahrus) exoletus. 



b: Number of spinous 



rays in the anal fin 



at most 3. 



u- The smallest depth 



of the tail at least 



85 per cent of the 



base of the anal fin L^abrus (Ctenolahrus) rupestris. 

 (^." The smallest depth 

 of the tail at most 

 75 per cent of the 

 base of the anal fin .... Lahrus (Crenilabrus) melops. 



" Lahrug hciujijijlta, L. massa nm\ L. pai:o, GnHnE, Rev. Mng. Zool., ser. 2, Tom. XVI (1864) pp. 255, 273, 337; Moreau, Hist. 

 Nat. J'oiss. Fr., Tom. Ill, p. 102. 



* This slutemcut a.s to sleep has been confirmed by Mfjnius and IIkincke (^Fische der Ostsee, p. 72) in connexion with a northern 

 species {Labrus rupestris), which, when kept in an afinariuni, seeks a sleeping place at night and lays itself down to rest on one side. 



' Cf. Cuv. et Vai,. Hist. yat. Poiss. p. 133 etc. Epicharmns apud Athenacus, Vll, 114; a/MQOug, tlov Oids TO GxaQ ^EfllTOV 

 fy.iitt).e7v d^eolg. 



