THE GAR-FISH. 499 



the Wrasses in the Bohus Skargard, as also on the western 

 coast of Norway, where it is found as high up as Sondmor 

 (lat. 02). It does not seem to find its way so far south 

 as the Sound, much less to the Baltic. It is the smallest 

 of the family, its usual length being some four inches, and 

 hitherto it has not been met with much exceeding five and 

 a half inches. It appears to keep farther from the land 

 than the rest of the Wrasses, but in other respects its 

 habits greatly resemble theirs. Nothing seems to be 

 known to Northern zoologists in regard to its breeding. 



The Rainbow Wrasse (Julis vulgaris, Flem., Cuv. & 

 Valenc.). This beautiful little fish, whose proper home 

 is the Mediterranean, and of which, by Yarrell's account, 

 only a single specimen has been found on the English 

 coast, has not yet found a place in Nilsson's "Scandina- 

 vian Fauna," but Kroyer includes it amongst the Danish 

 fishes, though not altogether confident as to its identity 

 with the above-named species. 



The Common Gar-Fish, or Sea-Pike (Ndbb-Gddda, i.e. 

 beaked pike, Sw. ; Horn-Fish, or horned fish, Norw. and 

 Dan. ; Belone vulgaris, Cuv.), was during May and June, 

 its breeding season, exceedingly abundant in the Bohus 

 Skargard, as it is elsewhere on the western coast of the 

 Peninsula, from the Sound to at least as high up as Dront- 

 heim ; and also in the southern and more midland portion 

 of the Baltic. Whilst the spawning lasts, these fish keep 

 in comparatively shoal water, but at its conclusion in 

 the end of June they retire to the deeps ; such of them at 

 least as have not proceeded farther than the Cattegat, for 

 those which spawn in the Baltic do not return from 

 thence until the end of August or beginning of September, 

 when, instead of being lean, as is the case on their arrival 

 in the spring, they are, to use the fisherman's expres- 

 sion, as " fat as butter." It is a common belief in the 

 south of Sweden, that when the Gar-Fish are unusually 



2 K 2 



