296 NATURAL HISTORY OF OUR SHORES 



likely, but they seem in very direct opposition to fishes' 

 general rule of protective coloration. 



Darwin strongly holds to the theory that bright or 

 conspicuous colours in the male are the result of the females' 

 choice of such gaudy males. 



This point Wallace ("Darwinism," p. 288) rejects, al- 

 though admitting the value of these colours as a means of 

 recognition, and attributes such conspicuous marking to the 

 result of " superfluous energy " at certain times, and points 

 out that such markings always follow certain centres of 

 bone, muscle, or nerve. Now, in the bright fish just 

 mentioned the lines and markings are not always the same : 

 the stripes are always there, but they may be straight or 

 may run zigzag, and vary from a quarter of an inch to 

 half-an-inch or more in width. Often the entire head and 

 fore part of the body are uniform blue, as if the fish had 

 been dipped into a pot of paint up to a certain line. (Mr 

 Wallace refers chiefly to birds, but, of course, the argument 

 applies all round.) 



Then, again, other members of the Labrida? do not show 

 sexual differences to thus afford marks of recognition. 

 In the Great Spotted Wrasse the adult males and females 

 are equally beautifully marked, summer and winter. 



These points must be put in the list of riddles yet to be 

 solved. 



This dissertation upon a strictly scientific problem, and 

 one on which the masters are at variance, does not seem 

 exactly in place in a popular outline of shore zoology, but 

 I introduce it to show what interesting points there 

 are to be looked into, and to show that our own shores 

 furnish abundant material for research. 



