i66 SALT-WATER FISHES 



The Sea-snail {hiparis vulgaris') is a small sucker that does 

 not exceed a length of 6 in. Its skin is so loose as to 

 give the impression of an ill-fitting coat. Herdman and 

 Dawson have found it in the Mersey district feeding on 

 shrimps. The eggs, which are sometimes deposited in 

 estuaries, attach themselves in small round masses to zoophytes 

 and red seaweeds at depths of between i and 30 fathoms — a 

 range of considerable variation ; and they have been mistaken 

 for the slightly larger eggs of the herring. They are said to 

 be very hardy, bearing transport and exposure when packed in 

 wet seaweed better than the eggs of most other fishes. Like 

 the lumpsucker, they have no scales. 



Montagu's Sucker {L. montagui) is both smaller and more 

 active than the last, and is common in the northern waters, 

 round the Hebrides. Neither of these smaller suckers have 

 the tubercles of the lumpsucker, but in them there is the same 

 modification of the throat- fins to form the adhesive disc. The 

 indirect importance of these little fishes to the student of 

 economic forms may be gathered from their continual occur- 

 rence in the stomach of the cod and haddock. 



Gobiesocidae 



The second group of suckers, with the separate disc 

 between the ventral fins, has four species, all of which deposit 

 their flattened, oval eggs inside the deserted shells of the scallop 

 or razor-fish, as well as among the roots of weed tangles. 

 Some of these small suckers are brilliantly coloured in early 

 life, the males particularly displaying much red on the eyes and 

 on the sides of the body. There are other secondary sexual 

 characters besides colour. The frilled border of the disc and 

 vent varies to a considerable extent in male and female. The 

 names of two of these little fishes, the Cornish and Connemara 

 suckers, illustrate the regrettable practice of earlier writers, 

 who often bestowed place-names on new species without taking 



