THE WRASSE FAMILY. 229 



self-denial is not confined to this group but is also characteristic 

 of such bony fishes as the sticklebacks, pipe-fishes, and the 

 viviparous blennies. This feature is not therefore found amongst 

 the larger and more powerful members of the Teleostean group, 

 but amongst the little shore-loving forms in which the fierce 

 struggle for very existence alongside their many foes in the 

 prolific littoral region has called forth many and varied resources 

 for protecting the species at its most vulnerable stage, viz. that 

 of the eggs and young. We may recognize an essential differ- 

 ence between the Teleostean types referred to. In the case of 

 the blennies it is the female sex upon which devolves the duty 

 of nourishing and protecting the young, a duty which has its 

 very first inception in all fishes by the supply of yolk from the 

 female organism, whereas in the case of the sticklebacks and 

 the pipe-fishes it is the males who in one case build the nests, 

 who watch over the eggs and guard the young with a jealous 

 eye, and if need be, with prickly spines, and in the other case 

 protect the young in a ventral pouch. 



The Wrasse Family. Iiabridse. 



The Ballan Wrasse. (Labrus hergylta, Ascan.) 



Though by no means a common fish on the eastern shores 

 of Scotland it is more frequent in the west and south. Nowhere 

 is it more abundant than at the rocky borders of the Channel 

 Islands, its dark form being familiar at low water as it glides 

 for shelter into recesses. With so wide a distribution, therefore, 

 it is remarkable that so little has been observed concerning its 

 spawning, indeed in the recent edition of the Scandinavian 

 Fishes the subject is only generally alluded to under the family 

 as follows : " and some species are said to build nests of sea-weed 

 for their ova." Couch states that the spawn is shed in spring 

 (April), and the young, of small size, scarcely more than an inch 

 in length, are seen about the borders of rocks at ebb-tide through 

 the summer. Parnell only quotes the foregoing, adding, however, 

 that " one in August was full of spawn ready for deposition." 



