WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 173. 



unmistakable irritability, his fans expanding and the spots on his 

 body changing from a light to a dark colour, as much as to say, 

 " Keep your hand off my person, sir ; that's a liberty I don't 

 allow to a stranger." The rapidity with which he catches and 

 devours a mullet of five or six ounces in weight is quite mar- 

 vellous, considering his apparently unsuitable shape for rapid 

 motion through the water, and the small mouth he possesses for 

 taking a fish of that size. However, one, two, and three mullet, 

 taken from a bait-tank, kept for the purpose, were quickly 

 disposed of by a turbot not weighing eight pounds his jaws 

 expanding like those of a snake. 



Other flat-fish there were in various compartments, such as 

 skate, ray, brill, topknot, plaice, and sole ; the first two, however, 

 claiming more attention than the rest, probably because they were 

 of larger size and not so well known by our party of landsmen 

 as their smaller and more common congeners. Of the eleven 

 species of true rays found in the adjoining seas, no less than five 

 specimens, one consisting of the sting ray, had been captured for 

 the institution. This fish is furnished with a serrated spine about 

 four or five inches long, placed midway on the tail, and giving it 

 the appearance of being double-tailed. With this weapon, when 

 attacked, it has the power, by twisting about its long tail, of 

 inflicting wounds that are rarely healed without much trouble, 

 for, although it has been ascertained that the spine carries no 

 poison, the laceration it effects is usually followed by severe 

 inflammation. So the first thing a fisherman does on landing a 

 sting ray is to chop off the dangerous tail. 



Then came the tank appropriated to several species of the- 

 ugly and ever-hungry dog-fish, own kinsman to the shark, the 

 "hyaena of ocean," and only less formidable because less powerful 

 than that terrible fish. But of all the piscine tribe the most 

 attractive and interesting to a naturalist were unquestionably the 

 pipe-fish, a number of which, varying from eight to eighteen. 



