155 



PAINTED LABRUS, 



Labrus /onnosus^ Bhnnet, 

 PLATE XXV. 



A rare native of the Ceylonese seas, where it is 

 taken on account of the nutritious quality of its 

 flesh ; it is said to frequent rocky situations, and is 

 remarkable for the very regular crimson markings 

 near the tail. 



The epidermis exists most unequivocally in those 

 fishes in which the surface is smooth, without being 

 viscid, as in the mackerel and SAVord-fish ; in other 

 fishes, the mucosity of the surface in a great mea- 

 sm*e supplies its place. And as the abundance of 

 this mucobity varies very much in different fishes, it 

 is to be inferred, that the apparatus by which it is 

 generated exhibits a corresponding variation. Ac- 

 cordingly the hag, the lamprey, the blenny, the 

 eel, both the common and the electrical, and vis- 

 cous fishes in general, present on the head, the 

 jaws, and along the lateral line, a greater or smaller 

 number of holes, or rounded pores, systematically 

 arranged, which have been looked on as the source 

 of this viscosity. It is, however, by no means 



