ORDER I. BONY FISHES. ACANTHOPTERYGII (SPINY-FINS). 169 
The dorsal fin is composed of twenty-four rays — twelve spinous and twelve 
membranous. It abounds in Buzzard’s Bay, and large quantities are also 
taken at New Bedford, Holmes’ Hole, and in the Vineyard Sound, which 
supply the Boston market. It is always a favorite on the table. 
The European seas furnish several species. LZ. maculalus, the Balloon 
Wrasse, is a foot or eighteen inches long, with twenty or twenty-one spines 
in the dorsal. Its color is blue or greenish above, white below, marked all 
over with yellow, and sometimes the yellow predominates. 
This species is numerous upon the British shores, though they are not 
very often caught; and, from the variations of their colors, they are not 
easily identified. 
selyes in fuci, and are understood to feed chiefly on crustacea. 
They frequent deep pools among the rocks, hide them- 
If the fish- 
ermen know their haunts, they take a bait freely; and, according to the 
report of Mr. Couch, the first taken are always the largest. They frequent 
the rocky shores only. They spawn in April; and the fry, which are then 
of small size, remain among the rocks during the summer. It is understood 
that the blue color, which appears to be characteristic of the high condition 
of the fish, is very evanescent. LZ. (éneatus, the Lineal-streaked, is more 
clouded, has irregular bands along the flank, the ground of which is reddish, 
and the dorsal spines are less numerous, and the soft part of the fin lower, 
than in the former species. This species is named as a British fish, but it 
appears to be exceedingly rare. L. variegatus, the Blue-streaked, is one 
of the most beautiful of the family, of an orange red, paler on the belly, 
haying the sides and irides striped with fine blue. The lips are capable of 
It 
is found in the British seas, but only on the south and south-west coasts. 
great extension, and there is a single row of pointed teeth in each jaw. 
LL. vetula is dark purple, black on the upper part, paler on the belly, and 
has the fore part of the head flesh-colored, tinged with purple, and the eye- 
lid blue. 
four light spots, and three black ones intermediate, extending from the 
It belongs to the Mediter- 
LL. carneus, the Three-spotted Wrasse, reddish in the color, with 
middle of the dorsal to the root of the caudal. 
ranean, but has been found on the Channel-coast of England, in the Firth 
of Forth, and even on the coast of Norway, and in the Baltic. 
Among the sub-genera are the following, which are all foreign, with one 
exception : — 
Chellinus, differs from Labrus, properly so called, in having the lateral 
line interrupted at the end of the dorsals, where it recommences a little 
lower down. They are beautiful fishes, inhabiting the Indian seas. 
Lachnolaimus (Captains), have the general characteristic of Labrus ; but 
their pharynx has no pavement-like teeth, except in the posterior part, the 
remainder of them, as well as a part of the palate, being covered with a 
