LIES Low AND LOOKS CUNNING. Ill 



SECTION EIGHTH. 



... 



1. Blue-striped Wrasse, Labrus mixtm. 2. Trumpet-fish, Sea-snipe, or Bellows-fish, 

 Centriscus scolopax. 3. American Tautog, Tautoga Americana. 



The family of the wrasses, or rockfish, includes our com- 

 mon bergalls, the New York tautog or common blackfish, and 

 those fancy-colored species known as " old wives of the sea." 

 Of the latter there are several varieties, such as the red old 

 wife, the blue old wife, and the yellow old wife, which are so 

 named in accordance with their prevailing colors. The thick 

 pouting lips of the fish of this family are their most striking 

 characteristic. The wrasses were known to the poet Oppian, 

 who describes the beds of sea-weed as their favorite place- 

 of resort : 



"And there thick beds of mossy verdure grew 

 Sea-grass, and spreading wrack are seen : below, 

 Gay rainbow-fish, and sable wrasse resort." 



The foregoing is an extract from Willson's Fifth Reader, 

 and forms a part of the " Glimpse of Ichthyology" which this 

 work includes. 



