306 THE OLD WIVES OF THE SEA. 



oval form. The Rainbow is remarkable for the beauty of 

 its coloring, as the name would imply : it is the ornament of 

 the markets on the coast of the Mediterranean, for the 

 various colors of the fish do not yield in their brilliancy and 

 beauty to the most lovely fishes of tropical seas. The sum- 

 mit of the head and back is of a rich brown, mixed with blue 

 and red ; beneath this brilliant tint there is a broad band, 

 with a denticulated margin of orange red: below this band, 

 and at the origin of the gill-ray, the middle portion of the 

 side is colored by a deep blue band. This marking extends 

 to near the tail in a band of ultramarine blue. An ultra- 

 marine streak of the lovliest hue arises at the angle of the 

 mouth, crosses the cheek, and is prolonged in fainter hues 

 along the inferior border of the deep blue marking of the 

 side. The dorsal fin is of an olive-color, mixed with red, 

 having the margin light blue. 



The Parrot-fish belongs to this numerous family, deriving 

 its name partly from a fancied resemblance in their jaws to 

 a parrot's bill. These fishes are remarkable for their bril- 

 liant colors, some of them being of wonderful splendor. One 

 species, found in the Mediterranean, is supposed to be the 

 famous Scarus of the ancients, of whose ruminating powers 

 extraordinary accounts have been related. 



To the family of the pipe-fishes belong the Hippocampus^ 

 or Sea-horse, which is, perhaps, more remarkable for the 

 singularity of its form — the upper parts having some resem- 

 blance to the head and neck of a horse in miniture — than 

 for any ornament or color, although these are not wanting. 

 The singularity of this fish is in the shape and disposition 

 of the plates on the tail, which are such as to admit of its 

 being easily curved inwards, and by the aid of which the 

 animal twists itself around the stems of marine plants, wait- 

 ing in that position with its head free, ready to dart at any 

 passing object which it desires to make its prey. 



