76 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



reach a length of fourteen inches, but the females are rarely more than a foot long. The female in 

 the Mediterranean is said to breed twice in the year. It is common in the North Atlantic, but 

 more abundant on the southern shore of England than farther eastward. It does not enter the 

 Baltic, and has not been met with in Iceland or Finmark. 



The CORKWING (Crenilabrus melops) is a Wrasse which ranges round the coasts of Europe. There 

 is a brown or black spot behind the eye, the sides of the head are red, the back has a purplish tinge, 

 and the under side is greenish. The body is marked with longitudinal stripes, which have a violet 

 colour in the upper part, but become red lower down. The dorsal, anal, and ventral fins are green, 

 and the pectoral fins reddish-yellow. This species has a deeper body than any other British Labroid 

 fish. The scales number thirty-seven on the lateral line, above which are four rows of scales, and there 

 are ten rows below it. In this genus the pre-operculum is denticulated, as in the young of the 



RAIXBOW WRASSE. 



genus Labrus. All the species have imbricated scales on the cheeks and on the opercular bones. 

 The conical teeth in the jaws are arranged in a single series. 



The other species are all confined to the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the neighbour- 

 hood of Madeira. 



Lachnolaimus is a genus confined to the Caribbean Sea. The genus Tautoga is a black fish 

 from the Atlantic coasts of the Northern States of North America. Malacopterus is another genus 

 from the island of Juan Fernandez ; Ctenolabrus is a jjenus found in the Mediterranean and tem- 

 perate parts of the North Atlantic, represented in English seas by Ctenolabrus rupestris. The genus 

 Acantholabrus is represented on the coast of Cornwall by a species named in honour of Mr. Couch. 

 Centrolabrus ranges from the Canary Isles to Greenland, is known on the English coast from one 

 species, the Centrolabrus exoletus, and is distinguished by the small size of its mouth. The fish 

 is seldom more than four inches long. There are sixteen rows of scales on each side, and thirty- 

 two scales on the lateral line. 



The second group of Labroid fishes has been named Chseropina. It includes only the one 

 genus Chterops, which is found in the Indian and Australian Seas, and has a species ranging 

 to China and Japan. 



The third group, named Julidina, includes thirty-seven genera, distinguished by having, as a 

 rule, fewer than thirteen spines in the dorsal fin, and frequently, in some groups of genera, only 



