3896 The Zoologist— March, 1874. 



the bottom of the pool. I repeated the experiinent several times 

 during ray stay, and always with the same results. 



The observations that follow have been made on fishes in my own 

 marine aquarium. 



Regarding the wrasses, also mentioned in your notes above 

 referred to, I have three in my aquarium at the present time, — 

 of the species Labrus maculatus, — and in addition to the queer 

 positions which you mention they assume during the night, — such 

 as " some are on their sides, some seem to be jammed in the 

 crevices of a rock, some seem to be standing on their noses, and 

 some on their tails,"— I notice that they sometimes indulge in 

 these singular attitudes during the day time, after they have been 

 fed, just as some people take a nap after dinner ! These attitudes 

 are most extraordinary, and at first sight I thought the fishes were 

 dead : the dorsal fin was rigid and motionless, and the fishes 

 seemed, from their flabby, pallid appearance, — if I may use such 

 an expression in reference to fishes, — to indicate, as in the higher 

 vertebrates, a diminished power in the functions of circulation and 

 respiration during repose. What is also remarkable, they usually 

 select the same spots to rest in. No later than the 1st of this 

 month, on which day I received your current number, I disturbed 

 a wrasse from his place of retirement, and three times he resumed 

 the identical position within a quarter of an hour! 



The blennies usually select the same place to rest in at night, 

 wedging themselves in a crevice, or more frequently lying on a 

 piece of rock entirely out of water. So constant are they to these 

 spots that I could direct a stranger where to find any particular 

 individual at night in the tank. 



The spotted gunnel or butter-fish {Mtircenoides guttata), although 

 allied to the blennies, exhibits, as far as my observation of him in 

 the aquarium goes, very kyr of the habits of that genus. For 

 instance, he has none of that tameness and familiarity which 

 characterize the blennies; neither is he so foud of raising himself 

 on a rock above the water-mark as they are. I am inclined to 

 think he is nocturnal ; for during the day he remains partially 

 coiled up round a weed or stone, and in the evening glides about 

 with a very graceful snake-like motion and takes his food, striking 

 at it just as a viper wounds an enemy. 



The two-spotted sucker {Lepidogaster himaculatus), a very old 

 friend of mine, remains anchored by his ventral sucker,— with his 



