THE BALLAN WRASSE. 495 



Labrus macnhffns, Bloch) was common in oui' Skargard, 

 as also on the western coast of Norway, as liigli up at 

 least as Bergen. Occasionally it has been met with as 

 far south as the Sound, hut never, I believe, in the Baltic. 

 It is only an inhabitant of salt water, of which the upper 

 portion at any rate of that sea can hardly be said to con- 

 sist. As with the Ruff and the Common Buzzard amonc-st 

 birds, not two of them are alike. Its usual length is from 

 twelve to fifteen inches, but it attains as much as eighteen, 

 and a weight of from three to three and a half pounds. 

 Its favourite resort — as its English name, " Rock Fish," 

 denotes — is stony ground. Its usual food is small fishes, 

 crustaceans, and molluscs. It is believed to spawn in the 

 sirring, say in April and May. Its flesh is white and firm, 

 and though somewhat luscious, is well-tasted ; but it is 

 little valued on the Bohus coast, and seldom eaten, except 

 by the poorer classes, and then not until after it has been 

 split open, and dried in the sun. Hence it is not much 

 sought after by the fishermen. 



About the year 1810, a sort of pestilence is said to 

 have raged amongst the Ballan Wrasses, so that great 

 numbers were found dead on the surface of the water. Por 

 several years afterwards these fish were only occasionally 

 seen by the fishermen, but in course of time they became 

 as numerous as heretofore. 



The Blue-striped or Cook Wrasse {Blu-snuUra, Bla- 

 gylta, Sw. ; Rod-nceh, i.e. red-beak, Norw. ; L. mixtus, 

 Liun. ; L. dispar, B. Fries). This fish, so truly depicted 

 in the annexed life-like drawing by M. Wilhelm von 

 Wright, was also found in our Skargiird, and likewise on 

 the western coast of Norway, as high up as lat. 63° ; but 

 less commonly than the last-named species. It does not, 



to have applied it from some fancied resemblance between the porcine snout 

 and the corresponding part of tliese fish. 



