HE COLORATION OF FISHES. 341 
a protection, and may simulate eyes, or by some other means, not 
apparent, deceive their~hereditary foes, or otherwise assist them 
to their own food supply. A variety, of which I have only taken 
one brilliant specimen, has developed the idea of “eyes” still 
more prominently and boldly; even to a more prominent and 
decided extent than in the case of the Two-spot Sucker, if the 
spots in this case are really protective, situated where they are. 
The specimen from Canna, where, no doubt, these delicate fishes 
are more exposed to enemies than in the protected lochs, had 
developed two large and brilliant “eyes” on the surface of the 
body, just behind the eyes proper. It thus. presented quite a 
formidable appearance when first exposed to view, the great 
unwinking circles appearing to gaze defiantly at the spectator. 
“These ocellated spots appear to be the type mark in Cornwall, 
yet are not present in our ordinary Scottish specimens, where the 
Species is most plentiful. Are they developed in the presence 
of special danger? The little dainty Montagu’s Sucker (Liparis 
Montagui (Donov.) ) is as varied as its fellows, and jerks along from 
tangle frond to frond, to which it sticks, by its sucker, in the 
swiftest current, in varied tints of brown, or yellow, or chocolate, 
barred, or occasionally with network marking. 
Of the largest of the class, the Lump Sucker (Cyclopterus 
lumpus, Linn.), I know little in the adult state, although I have 
taken myriads of the young, and hatched out the brilliant coral- 
tinted ova, so well known along our shores, but in the adult state 
it requires little protection in its ordinary habitat, and the male 
can afford to be known as the Cockpaidle, in which condition it 
is brilliant in orange and green, Where protection is desirable, 
it is fortheoming in the rough tubercles, with which it is covered, 
when it looks from above like an alge-covered, barnacle-coated 
stone itself, when affixed to a stone with its powerful sucker. I 
have elsewhere called attention to the young, jerking along amid 
the capsules of sea-weeds, and so closely resembling them in size, 
and form, and colouring, as to require their occasional movement 
to indicate their presence, 
There is one other fish, by far the most brilliant of our northern 
seas, whose glory of colouring is in keeping with his splendour 
of appointments. The male of the Skulpin (Callionymus lyra, 
Linn.) is so different from his sober-hued and dull-looking mate 
