THE WRASSES 195 



The pink brame, which the fishermen of some parts, 

 notably on the Irish coast, regard as poisonous, does not 

 from all accounts exceed a length of 6 in., and is found on 

 all parts of our coasts. The teeth are in a band on the jaws, 

 and the dorsal fin has more than twenty rays, the majority 

 of them prickly. The lateral line is much the same as in the 

 connor, and there are scales on the cheeks and gill-covers. 

 Why the name of brame, or bream, should at some of our 

 ports have been bestowed on this fish is not very clear ; but 

 this association of two distinct families is not confined to 

 this side of the Atlantic, for American writers also call the 

 wrasses " sea-breams." * 



This wrasse inhabits somewhat deeper water than most 

 of the family, and it is also a less persistent biter. On one 

 occasion the writer hooked four in the course of a morning's 

 pout-fishing about three miles south-west of the Dodman 

 Head ; but he never at any other time, before or since, saw 

 the fish, except in the lobster-pots. 



According to the authors of Scandinavian Fishes, the spawn- 

 ing-time is from April to July, and this account agrees with 

 what Day says on the subject. They alsof refer to rows of 

 spots which obliquely cross the lateral line, and which vanish 

 at the will of the fish if it is handled alive, and do not return 

 until it has recovered its equanimity. Bashford Dean figures 

 (after A. Agassiz) the larval stages of an allied American 

 species, with which our own probably agrees very closely. 

 The yolk-sac is situated at the throat when the larva is fir^t 

 hatched, and this first stage is seen to show strong resemblance 

 to a corresponding stage in the little sturgeon. At a week old 

 the pectoral fins are very conspicuous, and at four weeks old 

 the fish appears to have developed all the characters of the 

 full-grown stage. 



The Scale-rayed Wrasse (^Acantholabrus palloni) is a 

 southern form and one of the largest kinds found in our 

 * See Bashford Dean, Fishes, Living and Fossil, p. 225. t Of. cit., p. 17. 



