86 MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES 



feeds. The Bass grows to a large size, examples of fifteen, 

 sixteen, or even twenty pounds being not uncommon, such 

 finer specimens being mostly taken near the mouths of 

 rivers and the entrances of harbours to which they are 

 especially partial. Though strictly a marine fish the Bass 

 will ascend rivers into brackish water, and, as the writer 

 proved in the tanks of the Manchester Aquarium, may be 

 cultivated in purely fresh water. The ancient Romans, 

 from whom we might even yet take many a useful lesson 

 in the art of pisciculture, were well aware of the accommo- 

 dating habits of the Bass, and are asserted, on the authority 

 of Columella, to have even bred it in their freshwater ponds. 

 The Bass is one of the few sea species that may be success- 

 fully fished for with a rod and fly, excellent sport being 

 obtained with it in this manner, more especially along the 

 rocky coast-line of Devonshire and Cornwall. The cast of 

 a fine specimen of the Bass, length two feet nine inches, 

 weighing sixteen pounds, will be found among the collection 

 in the Buckland Museum. 



The Comber or Smooth Serranus (Serranus cabrilla), No. 

 4, met with in tolerable abundance on the coast of Cornwall, is 

 a fish of relatively small dimensions, not exceeding one foot 

 in length, whose aspect, colour, and habits greatly resemble 

 those of the Wrasses (Labridce). As a species of this last- 

 named group, the writer has indeed received it from the 

 above-named locality, in company with living examples of 

 the Ballan, Blue-Striped, and other Wrasses, for stocking the 

 tanks of the Brighton, Westminster, and other Aquaria. 

 The entire absence, however, in the Comber of the protru- 

 sile fleshy lips that constitute so prominent a character in 

 the Wrasses, serves at once to distinguish this fish from all 

 members of that family. The ground colour of the Comber 

 is usually a tawny yellow, becoming lighter towards the 



