LUMP-SUCKER. 



185 



and the spinous dorsal fin 5 if present, is short. The fishes are 

 sluggish in habits, and of wide distribution. The best known 

 forms in British seas are the Lump-sucker and the Sea-snail. The 

 Lump-sucker, Cyclopterus lumpas, 833-834, and fig. 87, is a 



Fig. 87.— Lump-sucker, Cyclopterus lumpus ; with a separate view of the 

 sucking-disc. 



clumsy-looking fish with a thick tuberculatcd skin and thin trans- 

 parent bones. At the breeding season the male is more brilliantly 

 coloured than the female. The eggs are laid in a pit made by the 



