Lizs Low anv Looxs Cunnina. 111 
SECTION EIGHTII. 
Secleo Laches. 
1. Blue-striped Wrasse, Labrus mixtus. 2. Trumpet-fish, Sea-snipe, or Bellows-fish, 
Centriscus scolopax. 3. American Tautog, Tautoga Americana. 
The family of the wrasses, or rockfish, includes our com- 
mon bergalls, the New York tautog or common blackfish, and 
those fancy-colored species known as “old wives of the sea.” 
Of the latter there are several varieties, such as the red old 
wife, the ddwe old wife, and the yellow old wife, which are so 
named in accordance with their prevailing colors. The thick 
pouting lips of the fish of this family are their most striking 
characteristic. The wrasses were known to the poet Oppian, 
who describes the beds of sea-weed as their favorite places 
of resort : 
“And there thick beds of mossy verdure grew— 
Sea-grass, and spreading wrack are seen: below, 
Gay rainbow-fish, and sable wrasse resort.” 
The foregoing is an extract from Willson’s Fifth Reader, 
and forms a part of the “Glimpse of Ichthyology” which this 
work includes. 
