192 SALT-WATER FISHES 



bright orange-red, but the male has converging blue bands 

 behind the eyes. The fins are yellow, and there is generally 

 a blue blotch on the dorsal, while the others have blue margins. 

 As in most highly coloured fishes, however, the tints are very 

 variable in both intensity and distribution. 



This wrasse has a large mouth, with fleshy lips, the upper 

 one bearing numerous papillae. The long, conical teeth are 

 evidently suited to breaking the shells of bivalves and 

 crustaceans. Day alludes to this fish taking the baits on 

 whiffing lines on the pollack grounds, but the writer never 

 heard of a single case. On the ground-lines used for pollack, 

 on the other hand, he has frequently taken different kinds of 

 ivrasse, for the baits sometimes go to the bottom at the turn 

 of the tide or on a change in the force or direction of the 

 wind. On such occasions a large wrasse is almost always 

 taken. The same authority also gives " lobworms " as the 

 best bait, by which he presumably intended the lugworm of 

 our shores. On the contrary, it is the ragworm of which the 

 wrasse is passionately fond, and in seizing which it makes itself 

 so great a nuisance to the pollack fisher. This wrasse, though 

 rarer in the north, has been taken all round the British Islands, 

 and apparently grows to a length of rather over a foot. 



The Ballan, or Comber {L. maculatus), a considerably larger 

 species, grows to a length of over i6 in. and a weight 

 of 7 or 8 lb., though this is uncommon. Its colours, 

 as brilliant in some examples as those of the last species, 

 are still more variable, but they do not show the same 

 difference in the sexes. The general body-colour is green, and 

 there is a good deal of blue in the scales. Orange-red lines 

 radiate on the face, and there are in some examples yellow 

 bands along the sides and in others round yellow spots on the 

 fins. This wrasse the French call by a name signifying " sea- 

 parrot," and the authors of the Scandinavian Fishes give a very 

 beautiful plate coloured from a living specimen. The colours 

 fade, however, very rapidly after death. 



