(129 



sliiuliiii!' oil till' l>:ii'l< iiil<i slate-ii'r.-iA' or hrowii, down the 

 sides and on the licUy into white, and with a silvery 

 histre, l)i'igiit('st in ulil specimens. On tiie sides of the 

 liead. in trout of and l)clo\v ihe cxx's, as well as on the 

 cjiin anil throat, we see irre^inlar, elonded spots (if i-ed- 

 (iish l)i-o\vn or i^v.w. Tlie dorsal and anal Hns art' brown, 

 hlackish at the tips. The pectoral fins are also Ijrown, 

 lint, nccordiiiii' to CosrA, crossed by transverse bands of 

 i;ra\ish white. The |inpil is bluish, the iris, according 

 to most descrij)tions, silvery with yellow or red inner 

 margin and with a spot of the same colour above and 

 below. 



Both in the internal organs of the .Suntish and on 

 its gills and skin there live an extraordinary number of 

 parasites, (juite justifying, in the case of old specimens 

 at least, the appellation of living "hotels garnis" which 

 has been bestowed ujKin them". The skin of large spe- 

 cimens is coated with a laver of tough slime, two- 

 fifths of an inch thick, in which there crawl lice of the 

 family Cdlii/iila', and to which parasitic crustaceans of the 

 genus Poiella — on which ("irrhipeds of the genus Coiiclio- 

 deniKi may be found — and Trematods of the families 

 Tiistomkhp and Monostonikhc attach themselves. The 

 gills an' infested with (^aligoids of tlic genus Lcemargus 

 and Trematods of the family Distomida, the eyes with 

 FUuike. In the muscles and, in still greater immbers, 

 in the liver we find roundworms of the order Acautho- 

 cephali, and in the intestine, which is generally full of 

 a fetid, tough, grayish white mucus, roundworms of 

 the genus Ascarls and Hatworms of the genera Disfoma, 

 Tt'trarJii/ncliKS, a nd Botlirioccplialus. 



Of the daily life of the Snntish we have but little 

 information. All \ve know with certainty, is that it is 

 strictly a pelagic fish. It has been most often met with 

 lying on one side at the surface of the sea — we have 

 already made the same observation in the case of several 

 deep-sea lishes — to which the tish has been supposed 

 to ascend in fine weather in order to bask in the sun'. 

 Its lethargy on most of these occasions, however, may 

 well be due to its having wandered from its proper 

 home. Still, it has sometimes appeared nearer land and 

 swimming forward, with the dorsal tin above the water, 

 as Gosse" relates of a Suntish, 137 cm. long, that was 



taken in the liristdl t'hanncl iii'\' IHVaconibc. "It was 

 slowh' moving at the time of its disc(ner\', with a wav- 

 ing motion from side to side, "like a man sculling a 

 lioat," to use the comiiarison of the sailor who helped 

 to tak(^ it; the back-lin ajipearing abo\e water, 'flic tish 

 permitted the boat to come close uji without cxhiliiting 

 alarm, nor was he even distui'bed wdien her side came 

 into contact with his bulky person. The fellows made 

 a bowline-knot, and slipijed it over his head, tightening 

 it before his dorsal and anal, so that the knot came in 

 the middle of his side. Thus they hauled him in, not 

 without a wetting, for \vith a flapping action of his 

 ample fins (again a sort of sculling) he scooped up the 

 water and threw it over them and into the boat. He 

 survived his introduction to the public about an hour." 

 One of the largest specimens that have been found on 

 the English coast, II) dm. in length, was caught off 

 Chesil Bank (Dorset) in June, 184(i''. This specimen 

 was n)ore active from the very first, and swam .straight 

 into the middle of tlie Mackerel-nets. The tirst net bur.st; 

 but in the outer net the progress of the tish was checked; 

 and with the help of 40 jiei'sons the catch was hauled 

 ashore. "Here it dashed about the pebbles, accoi'ding 

 to the fishermen's account, like a shower of grape. It 

 expired in about three hours, after uttering "hideous 

 groans," like those of a horse dying of the staggers." 

 During the summer and autumn of IS.'iO the Sun- 

 fish \\-as observed in the English Channel more often 

 than usual; and from a comparison of these observations 

 Newman' came to the conclusion that these fishes had 

 migrated thither from the west. The first find was re- 

 corded on the Cornish coast on the 9th of June, the 

 last off Dover on the 8th of Sei^tember. During his 

 expedition with the HirondeUc in 188B the Prince of 

 Monaco in the month of September fell in with a num- 

 ber of Sunfish in comjjany, not far south of Great Sole 

 Bank, outside the entrance of the Channel. All of them 

 were of insignificant size. The larger Sunfish he found 

 in more scattered companies, but nearly always several 

 not far from each other, in the open Atlantic east and 

 north of the Azores. The Sunfish thus seems to be to a 

 certain degree gregarious, at least during youth. Though it 

 is usually sluggish and helpless, as it lies at the surface, 



" Malard, Le Naturaliste, •2<' serie, No. 4t'i (1" fevr. 1889). 

 ' Hence, perliaps. the name of Sunfisli. 

 ' Zoologist, 1852, p. 3579. 

 •' Proc. Zoo). Soc. 1849, p. 6. 

 ' Zoologist 1850, preface, p. XI. 



