SMALL-MOUTHED WRASSE. 37 



the county of Antrim, and at Lougli Foyle in the county of 

 Londonderry. At the former place the fish was found by 

 Dr. Drummond, and at both places by Captain Portlock. 



Although this fish was moat appropriately called micro- 

 stoma, for it may be immediately distinguished when among 

 other Crenilabri by this very obvious peculiarity, it proves 

 to be a species long known to more northern naturalists, 

 Mr. Thompson has given a coloured representation of this 

 fish in the second volume of the Magazine of Zoology and 

 Botany, as previously quoted, and the recent publication 

 at Stockholm of another coloured figure in the second part of 

 the Fishes of Scandinavia, by MM. Fries and Ekstrom, 

 leave no doubt of the two fishes being the same, and enable 

 us to identify our species as the Labrus exoletus of Linnaeus. 

 It is a fish of small size, seldom exceeding four inches or 

 four inches and a half in length, and is taken occasionally on 

 the coasts of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, and, according 

 to Fabricius, as for north as Greenland, where, however, it 

 is said to be rare. 



The specimen from which the figure and description were 

 taken, measured four inches in length, and one inch and one 

 quarter in depth ; the length of the head compared to that of 

 the whole fish, is as one to four, or rather less. This species 

 exhibits a slight elevation over the eye in the line of the 

 frontal profile ; the figure here given marks the true position 

 and relative length of the various fins. The teeth are flat, 

 even, and incisor-like, with the corners slightly rounded ; 

 some light-coloured lines extend from the mouth to the 

 orbit, and over part of the cheek ; the irides are silvery ; the 

 colour of the head and body is dark brown on the upper part, 

 passing into pale wood-brown underneath, and on the sides 

 and belly ; the colour of the dorsal, caudal, and anal fins 

 dark brown ; the pectoral and ventral fins lighter ; and my 

 specimens having been many months preserved in spirits 



