FIGUKES OF WRASSES. 201 



come familiar, and may be preserved in health a long 

 time. They are constantly occupied in searching for, 

 and picking off atoms, invisible to us, with their protru- 

 sile lips. These organs are remarkably large, thick, 

 and fleshy, whence has been derived the name of the 

 family, Labridce (from labrum, a lip) ; and, in death, 

 they are generally projected in an uncouth and repul- 

 sive form. It is a pity that Yarrell's figures have been 

 for the most part copied from specimens in this dis- 

 torted condition, and are therefore hideous caricatures 

 of the little beauties. His Corkwing is a notable 

 example, presenting but little resemblance to the 

 playful emerald in my tank ; while the Gilthead and 

 the Sea-wife are still more horrible. It is matter of 

 regret that so large a portion of our pictorial natural 

 history represents death rather than life ; while a herd 

 of slavish compilers, who have never seen the creatures 

 on which they obtrude their teachings, copy such im- 

 perfect figures, and copy each other, and go on augment- 

 ing the distortions, and straying farther and farther 

 from nature, till all vraisemUance is lost in the ludicrous 

 caricature. 



In a former work 1 I have narrated the untimely fate 

 of one of these pretty fishes in my possession, through 

 the poison- darts of a Parasitic Anemone. 2 A similar 



1 Aquarium (2d Ed.), p. 108. 2 Sagartia parasitica. 



