336 



The Descent of Man. 



Past II. 



has been called the gi-mmeovs dragonet " from its brilliant gem- 

 " like colours." When fresh caught from the sea the body is 

 yellow of various shades, striped and spotted with vivid blue on 

 the head ; the dorsal fins are pale brown with dark longitudinal 

 bands ; the ventral, caudal, and anal fins being bluish-black. 

 The female, or sordid dragonet, was considered by Linnaeus, and 

 by many subseqiient naturalists, as a distinct species; it is of a 

 dingy reddish-brown, with the dorsal fin brown and the other 



Fig. 29. Callionymus lyra. Upper figure, male ; lower figure, female. 

 N.B. The lower figure is more reduced tlian the upper. 



fins white. The sexes differ also in the proportional size of the 

 head and mouth, and in the position of the eyes ;'^ hut the 

 most striking difference is the extraordinary elongation in the 

 male (fig. 'i9) of the dorsal fin. Mr. "W. Saville Kent remarks 

 that this " singular appendage appears from my observations 

 " of the species in confinement, to be subservient to the same 

 " end as the wattles, crests, and other abnormal adjuncts of 

 " the male in gallinaceous birds, for the purpose of fascinating 



"■ I hare drawn up this description from Yarrell's ' British Fishes, 'vol. i. 

 183S, pp. 261 and 266. 



