THE ZooLocist—NoveEMBER, 1876. 5159 
in various innocent and harmless creatures, and their accounts of 
La Girelle read like bitter calumnies, when one sees the pretty, 
timid, little fellows swimming about in their miniature ocean, care- 
fully avoiding their fellow-guests, and darting instantly out of sight 
at the first symptom of danger. Several times I have put my hand 
in the water to try and attract them, always with the same result— 
an instant stampede. It is not often, however, that they are to 
be seen at all; for being of the quietest and most retiring nature, 
their usual habit is to hide deep in a bed of shingle,—preferring 
shingle to sand,—from which they can only be dislodged by 
violence. When one of them is disturbed, it darts out of its stony 
bed, and vanishes like a flash of lightning. Presently it may be 
discovered in some dark nook among the rocks, where, lying 
hidden till it thinks all is again quiet and its enemy has disap- 
peared, it comes out, and swimming quietly round and round, 
carefully avoiding the other tenants of the tank, it makes a 
reconnaissance of its old quarters. Gradually approaching closer 
and closer it at last rests on the bottom, as if to make sure that 
all is right; then raising itself a few inches, and taking a final 
observation, it poises for a moment head downwards, and plunges 
like an arrow amongst the stones. The dive is so wonderfully 
' quick that, after placing itself in position, it simply disappears, 
a slight disturbance of the shingle as it settles comfortably down 
being all there is to show where the fish has gone. 
Cuvier and Valenciennes say of it:—“ La Girelle est un poisson 
trés-commune dans la Méditerranée, et dont on trouve un grand 
nombre de variétés, qui quelques zoologistes ont essayé de separer 
en espéces. Elles font ’ornement des marchés des ports de cette 
mer, car leurs couleurs, trés-variées, ne le cédent en rien, par leur 
éclat et leur beauté aux poissons les plus brilliants que les mers 
des tropiques nous envoient.” Speaking of its habits they write :— 
“Ces poissons sont littoraux, vivent parmi les roches madré- 
poriques, ot ils trouvent en abondance des mollusques, des oursins 
et autres animaux a test dur, qu’ils brisent facilement avec les 
dents fortes et coniques.” This agrees with my own observations. 
La Girelle is greedy for small Crustacea. I have seen it chase 
a Cook wrasse (Labrus mixtus) ten times its own size, which was 
swimming about with a crab in its mouth, round and round a long 
tank, tearing off the legs of the unfortunate crab as they dangled 
from the mouth of its captor. 
