PLAICE, DORY AND GARFISH 



1005 



though in a few, hke the Austrahan 

 " Lung-fish " and some of its relatives in 

 Africa and South America, we also find an 

 arrangement for breathing air direct in- 

 stead of, as is done by the rest, using such 

 air as is suspended in the water. 



\Miat a range of colour, too, we find 

 even on the fishmonger's slab : the blue 

 and silver ^lackerel, the brown, red-spotted 

 Plaice, the duller Cod and Whiting, the 

 scarlet Gurnard, and many others. If, 

 instead of confining our survey to the 

 fishmonger's, we pay a visit to the 

 museum in Cromwell Road, where Mr. 

 Boulenger has got together a wonderful 



the female, a homely little thing beside 

 her resplendent mate, was long thought 

 to be a distinct kind of fish, and was 

 always referred to as the Dusky Skulpin. 

 There always has been a good deal of 

 discussion among naturalists as to the 

 meaning of these differences. Some are 

 of opinion that the males display the 

 brighter colours to be attractive to the 

 females. Others hold that the females 

 gladly wear quiet colours in order not to 

 be seen during the time they are laying 

 their eggs, a provision of Nature for the 

 maintenance of the race. These are mere 

 guesses, and both may be wrong. In any 

 case, one opinion is as much entitled to 

 a hearing as the other. 



Not a great many of our sea fish are 

 spotted, though spots are familiar in the 

 Plaice and in the Common Dogfish. 

 Still, a large number of other fishes 

 bear spots when very young, just 

 after leaving the egg. This is the case 



GARFISH. 



collection of fishes from all 

 the world over, we shall be 

 amazed by the extraordinary 

 variety of colour, for some of the Wrasses, 

 Dragonets, Gurnards and Mackerels, the 

 Opah, and others too numerous to men- 

 tion, are a perfect blaze of colour. It 

 would appear at first glance as if such 

 skins, which seem to be modelled on the 

 gaudiest Turkey carpets, would make their 

 owners too conspicuous to their enemies, 

 as well as to the smaller fishes, which 

 many of them have to catch for their 

 living ; but a little inquiry shows that 

 many of the most brilliant inhabit tropical 

 seas, where the fierce sunlight makes 

 them, in fact, harder to see than they 

 would be in duller coats. 



As in birds, too, the male is sometimes 

 more gaily dressed than the female. The 

 gemmeous Dragonet is a well-known case 

 of this difference between the sexes, and 



with young Cod, which may be compared 

 in this respect with hon cubs, which are 

 generally spotted at birth, though they 

 lose their spots in course of time. Other 

 fishes, like the Dory and Turbot. have a 

 chameleon-like trick of changing their 

 colour to suit their background, and the 

 Wrasses, brilliantly coloured fishes that 

 are of no use for the table, also possess 

 this peculiarity. 



Reverting for a moment to the shape 

 of our British fishes, there are many re- 

 markable types which are never seen at 

 the fislunonger's, save occasionally as 

 exhibits to attract buyers. There is the 

 Sunfish, an extraordinary globular mon- 

 ster, which may weigh over 51X) lb. 

 There is the Swordfish, which is armed 

 with a l(jng bone on the snout capable of 



