FISH-LIVERIES, AND WHY THEY ARE WORN. 75 



generally brilliantly coloured fish of a quite dull 

 hue, which remains for some time. 



The colours in the scales of a fish depend 

 much on its surroundings, says a writer in the 

 ''Encyclopaedia of Sport." "A trout taken off 

 a muddy, weedy bottom will often have a general 

 shade of rich yellow over its sides and belly; 

 while even in the same lake a trout taken from 

 the opposite shore which, let us say, is rocky and 

 sandy, will be of a steely blue colour. A trout 

 swimming in deep water over a peaty bottom 

 will have a dark back ; while fish which inhabit 

 shallow, bright, gravelly streams will have a 

 light brown back, in fact, almost gravel colour. 

 This is without doubt a provision of Nature to 

 disguise the fish as much as possible from the 

 keen eyes of herons and other fish-eating birds." 



"In many bright-shining fishes," writes Dr 

 Giinther, "as mackerels, mullets, the colours 

 appear to be brightest in the time intervening 

 between the capture of the fish and its death ; 

 a phenomenon clearly due to the pressure of the 

 convulsively-contracted muscles on the chromato- 

 phores. External irritation readily excites the 

 chromatophores to expand — a fact unconsciously 

 utilised by fishermen, who, by scaling the red 

 mullet immediately before its death, produce the 

 desired intensity of the red colour of the skin 

 without which the fish would not be saleable." 



The red mullets have been esteemed for their 

 colour from time immemorial. So great was 

 the admiration it excited in the breasts of the 

 Romans that the wealthy had it brought to table 

 alive that they might watch the brilliant display 



