30 



GREEN WRASS. 



GREEN STREAKED WRASS 



Lcibrus Uneatus, Donovan; pi. 74, 



" " Jenyns; Manual, p. 392. 



" *• Yareell; British Fishes, vol. i, p. 315. 



We have seen, when speaking of the Ballan Wrass, that it ] 

 is common to this whole family to be characterized by the j 

 possession of lively colours, which in each species are liable ' 

 to considerable variation, and of which the intensity will be 

 modified according to the nature of the ground they live in, 

 or depth of water. But notwithstanding this tendency to vary, 

 each species is found to possess a prevailing cast of colour, 

 beyond a certain limit of which the variation does not proceed. 

 These colours appear to have their seat in the epidermis or 

 skin which clothes the body, and especially covers that 

 elongated portion of each scale which remains free and not 

 overlapped, and which serves to keep the scales in their place. 

 Although the colour diffused over the body is intimately 

 associated with their health and life, and even with their 

 passions, so as to vary with these conditions in a very short 

 time, — and the Ballan Wrass has been seen to change decidedly 

 under the impulse of the fear of capture, — yet the prevailing 

 bias of these tints appears to be under the dominion of chemical 

 materials which are constituent portions of the blood, in the 

 same manner as are the leaves of trees under similar conditions. 

 Thus, in the Ballan Wrass, where the colours will be red. 

 orange, or yellow, brown, blue, or green in different individuals. 

 or on different parts of the same surftice, yet gradually after 

 death these colours will fade or change, and settle down into 



