FISH PHOTOGRAPHY AT HOME 183 



In the first place, many beautiful specimens have 

 been brought to me from time to time by members of 

 the local angling societies, and as I am fairly well known 

 to the professional fishermen, odd specimens of sea-fish 

 are occasionally brought up to my house. Recently in 

 this manner I received the largest lump-sucker that I 

 have ever seen. This fish is one of the ugliest of our sea- 

 fishes, and is known as a sucker because the pelvic fins 

 are modified to form a cup-shaped sucking disc. By 

 means of this disc the fish attaches itself to the rocks. 

 The pelvic fins which form the disc are very much 

 thickened, and are fleshy round their edges, and the 

 sucking action is caused by the contraction of the 

 muscles of the fins which flatten this disc on to the 

 rocks. Lump-suckers' eggs are often to be found round 

 our shores, and on one occasion a fisherman brought me 

 a tin upon which masses of these eggs were attached. 

 These duly hatched, and I was able to photograph the 

 growth of the young lump-sucker. 



While writing about the parental care of fish for their 

 eggs and offspring, I might have mentioned the lump- 

 sucker, for the persistence with which the male guards 

 the eggs is exceptional. Mcintosh quotes a case where 

 a lump-sucker had attached the eggs to a stone just 

 above low-water mark ; the stone, however, was partially 

 covered at low tide, as it was situated in a run of water. 

 With every low tide the body of this fish was only 

 partially covered, and its gills were half out of water ; 

 and though the June sun made him pant, and the fish 



