FATHER-I.ASHER. 



This species generally seeks concealment under tlie shelter 

 of some stone or sea-weccl, from which it passes out only in 

 search of prey, or to change one situation for another. The 

 season of spawning is probably spread over some distance of 

 time in the spring, and I have seen the single grains of spawn 

 with the embryo within them partly developed, as if scattered 

 at random in pools of the rocks. When freed from the egg 

 the young ones offer an example by which, perhaj)s, we may 

 judge how some other smooth-skinned fishes obtain the develop- 

 ment of their mottled colours. At their earliest stage the 

 surface of the body is transparent; and the only visible coloured 

 substance is the peritoneum, or lining of the cavity of the 

 bowels. The colouring of the skin begins at the head, and is 

 gradually continued backward in defined and separate bands, 

 the intervals between each band continuing transparent for a 

 longer or shorter time; and each of the succeeding dark bands 

 at its formation is still paler than the next before it. The fins 

 assume their colours last of all; and when the whole of the 

 surface has become tinted, the alternate bands break into spots 

 or circles by which the fish is ever after distinguished. 



The Father-lasher, or Sting-fish, will live long out of the 

 water, and the longer if its skin be kept moistened; but it is 

 said to be quickly killed if dipped in fresh- water : a circumstance 

 the more remarkable as its haunts are frequently in j^laces 

 where the fresh and salt-water mingle together. It is widely 

 distributed in the seas of Europe; and besides the extreme 

 limits of the British Islands it is found from the Baltic to the 

 Mediterranean. With us, however, it is too insignificant to be 

 employed as food. 



It grows to the length of four or five inches ; the head large, 

 wide, and depressed; the eyes near each other, but directed 

 laterally; and I have seen an example with a row of tendrils 

 hanging from the skin above the eyes. A depression between 

 the eyes, and two bony prominences before them. On the top 

 of the head a lengthened channel; the gill-covers armed with 

 sharp spines, one of which is long and sharp, covered with 

 the skin, which the fish can in part withdraw, and cover it 

 over again. The mouth wide, with teeth in the jaws and 

 palate. The body rounded near the head, the belly protuberant, 

 tapering towards the tail; a row of low spines along the course 

 VOL. II. C 



