WRASSES. 



23 



between tlint and the lotli. In an ohlicjue transverse 

 I'ow, reckoning upwards or downwards in a posterior 

 direction from the first scale in tliis str'aight part of 

 the lateral line, there are 8 scales. 



The beautiful but changeable colouring of this fish, 

 of wiiich Linnaeus said, forniosissinius piscis Europse- 

 orum ob colores varios', has naturally disappeared in the 

 S])eciniens preserved in spirits wliich have l^een acces- 



sil)l(' to me; but the limits (if the extension of the . in the ma]( 



different colours may still be traced in the specimens a 

 century old, the mementoes of Linn.t^us's studies, and 

 are given in our figure. According to Day, «the males 

 are purplish or bluish-brown along the upjicr half of 

 the body, and silvei-y-white below; along the uppei' iialf 

 runs a broad and generally indented, yellowish-white 

 line which commences behind the eye and is continued 

 to the base of the caudal tin. A small, round black 

 s[)ot on the end of the opercle. Dorsal fin yellowish, 

 ^\'ith a purple or orange outer edge, while a purplish or 

 greenish-yellow spot with a curved upper edge is pre- 

 sent between each ray. A large oval, lilack or bluish 

 spot exists on the anterior portion of this fin between 



the first and fourth spines. A black spot in the axil 

 of the pectoral fin". The anal fin is similar to the 

 soft dorsal but lightei-. In tlie females the upper third 

 of the body is purplish, witii a light yellow band pass- 

 ing from the eye to tlie base of the caudal fin: lower 

 two-thirds of tlie body silveiy with one or more yellow 

 longitudinal Ij.mds. A dark s])ot in tlic axil of the 

 pectoral fin, and another on the end of the opercle as 



The fins in tlie female reddish.* 

 lave mentioned, tlie Itainbow Wrasse has 



As we 



onlv twice lieen met with on the Scandinavian coast; 

 l)ut these finds were made a good distance within the 

 limits ol' oui' fauna. In 18.^>4 two specimens were 

 caught in the Little Belt off Strib (l'"uneii), whicli were 

 forwarded to Kuoykk and described by him. On another 

 o(;casion, according to Tauber*, a cou])le of specimens 

 were taken in the Sound, near Helleba-k. 



In the Mediterranean the Rainbow Wrasse is among 

 the most common of fishes ^ Its flesh is white, of good 

 flavour and easy of digestion. Its voracity is attested 

 by tales in the literature of olden times, and it is even 

 said to have attacked persons bathing. 



In the following Acanthopterygian Eleutherognates, 

 which we may call Acanthopterygii lysipliaryngei'\ in 

 order to distinguish them from the pi'eceding division, 

 the lower pharyngeals are, with few exceptions, free 

 from each other. This division of the Acanthopterygians 

 contains the most numerous and in general the most 

 regular forms of Physoclysts, but many of the fishes 

 which on account of their characters must be referred 

 to this division, are, however, of an anomalous, even 

 monstrous appeai'ance in comparison with the typical 

 piscine forms. All attempts to arrange the Lysipharyngei 

 in natural, distinct groups, have met with great diffi- 

 culties, for the character which distinguishes them from 

 the preceding division is by no means universal (though 

 this does not affect the Scandinavian Fauna), while the 

 great variety of form renders it extremely hard to find 

 constant characters, whicli hold gO(jd for the regular 



forms, as well as for the anomalous ones connected with 

 them by more or less distinct intermediate forms. Among 

 the Lysipharyngei one may trace several distinct direc- 

 tions of development, which sometimes run parallel to 

 each other, and sometimes sudderdy deviate into strange 

 anomalies. These directions of development ought to be 

 systematically expressed in the division into families and 

 groups. This is, however, rendered difficult partly by 

 the anomalies mentioned above, and partly by the re- 

 semblances, often highly remarkable, between the lower 

 stages of develo]nnent in different families. Up to the 

 present, it is true, ^\'e have only isolated observations 

 of the variations of development — the principal works 

 on this subject are Lutken's Spolia Atlantica', in which 

 work a list is given of the rest of the literature on this 

 point, and GCxthers Audreiv Garretts Fische der Siidsee^. 

 This nuich, however, may be said of the result of these 



" The Linnean type specimen of cf, tlie original of our figure, still exhibits distinct traces of the oblong, black spot behind the point of the 

 pectoral fin and below the dentated, yellow band which runs along the sides of the body, and also of the anterior continuation of this spot, in the 

 form of a narrow ribbon-like stripe, to the corner of the mouth. Cf. the figure given by WiSTHEU in Zoologia Daitica, Fhh., pi. VIII, fig. 7. 



'' Vid. Hansen in Zool. Danica, Fiske, p. 56. 



' >Coniniunissima> GlGLlOLl, Esposizione internazionale di Pesca in Berlino 1880, p. 95. 



■* = Acanthopteri veri, Owen (p. p.) Anat. Vert., Vol. I. p. 11. 



' Dansk. Vid. Schk. Skr., 5th R., Naturv. Math. Afh., XII, 6. 



/ Journal des Museum Godeffroy. See also his later work: An Introduction to the 6'tudi/ of Fishes {Handbuch der Ichthyologie), Cap. XIII. 



