FISH PHOTOGRAPHY AT HOME 183 
In the first place, many beautiful specimens have 
been brought to me from time to time by members of 
the local angling societies, and as I am fairly well known 
to the professional fishermen, odd specimens of sea-fish 
are occasionally brought up to my house. Recently in 
this manner I received the largest lump-sucker that I 
have ever seen. This fish is one of the ugliest of our sea- 
fishes, and is known as a sucker because the pelvic fins 
are modified to form a cup-shaped sucking disc. By 
means of this disc the fish attaches itself to the rocks. 
The pelvic fins which form the dise are very much 
thickened, and are fleshy round their edges, and the 
sucking action is caused by the contraction of the 
muscles of the fins which flatten this disc on to the 
rocks. Lump-suckers’ eggs are often to be found round 
our shores, and on one occasion a fisherman brought me 
a tin upon which masses of these eggs were attached. 
These duly hatched, and I was able to photograph the 
growth of the young lump-sucker. 
While writing about the parental care of fish for their 
eggs and offspring, I might have mentioned the lump- 
sucker, for the persistence with which the male guards 
the eggs is exceptional. McIntosh quotes a case where 
a lump-sucker had attached the eggs to a stone just 
above low-water mark ; the stone, however, was partially 
covered at low tide, as it was situated in a run of water. 
With every low tide the body of this fish was only 
partially covered, and its gills were half out of water ; 
and though the June sun made him pant, and the fish 
