GENERAL FACTS ABOUT SEA FISH ii 



artificial colouring of the flounder {Tleuronectes\ in which 

 light was thrown up from a mirror arranged beneath the tank. 

 Reference will, however, be made to this investigation on a 

 later page, as also to the somewhat frequent occurrence of 

 abnormally coloured flat-fish, such as albino brill (^Rhombus 

 lavis) and " double " turbot (R. maximus), the latter similarly 

 coloured and, in some cases, studded with tubercles on 

 both sides. 



The size of fishes oflFers, at any rate, as great a contrast 

 as the range in any other vertebrate class. Between the 

 basking shark {Selache) of our seas, which may attain to a 

 length of 40 feet, and the tiny " sinarapan " of Lake Buhi, in 

 the Philippines, which never, when full-grown, exceeds \ inch, 

 there is a wide margin, and, without drawing on the fauna 

 of so distant an archipelago, some of the smaller suckers 

 {Liparis) of our own coast, with a maximum length of 1 or 

 3 inches sufficiently illustrate the contrast. As regards the bony 

 fishes, at any rate, the females are usually the larger, as well 

 as the more numerous. This subject will, however, be dealt 

 with further on a later page, and the exceptions, which are 

 numerous, wiU, where necessary, be noted. The size of a 

 given species varies considerably according to locality ; and it 

 must not be forgotten that abundance or scarcity of food 

 probably plays a more important part in this than in the case 

 of any other vertebrates. Thus, the herring [Clupea) of the 

 Baltic and the mackerel (^Scomber) of the Mediterranean are 

 both smaller than their kinsmen of the same age (as far as 

 can be determined) on our coasts, while the former sea also 

 has a race of dwarfed plaice (^Pleuronectes), which sometimes, 

 at certain seasons, find their way to the Grimsby market. 



Abnormally shaped fishes are not uncommon, and many of 

 these monstrosities were described by unsophisticated writers 

 of a bygone generation as distinct species. In this connection 

 reference should be made to an interesting explanation, quoted 

 on a later page, which the late Matthias Dunn gave in respect 



