DISCOBOLI. 181 



emerald green, this last colour being sometimes continued in the adult, the sides 

 being tinged with crimson. Shaw (Nat. Misc. ix, p. 310) considered such to be 

 a different species (G. pavoninus) : while those possessing a prominent pyramidal 

 elevation on the back (due it has been surmised to bad stuffing) have been termed 

 C. pyramidatus (Shaw). 



Names. — Lump-sucker, due to its lumpy form and possessing a suctorial disc. 

 Paddle-cook, Scotland, owing to its dorsal ridge enveloped in tubercular skin, 

 resembling the comb of a domestic cock : also cock- and hen-paidle or red- and 

 llue-paidle, according to sex. Locally known as sea-oivl and hush-bag aty. 

 Jar-for, Welsh. Snotdolf, Dutch. Lompe, grosmollet, and lievre de mer, French. 



Habits. — It is very tenacious of life, but inactive adhering firmly to rocks, 

 and rarely moving except when in pursuit of food, or during migrations : it has, 

 however, been said to progress with greater velocity than its appearance would 

 credit it with. Coming in-shore about March it usually retires to deeper 

 waters after August, or else conceals itself during winter under rocks, to 

 which it frequently attaches itself. Its food consists of marine worms and small 

 fish : while crustaceous animals, as Onisci, have been found in its stomach. 



In its way it is sometimes a " commensal," as is the Echeneis, only it adheres 

 to floating objects, usually inanimate, for the purpose of being transported 

 from one locality to another. Couch alludes to an example found adhering to 

 the skin of a mackerel that had become entangled in a drift net over a con- 

 siderable depth of water. " As a proof of its tenacity, we have known that on 

 plunging a fish of this species, just caught, into a pail o'f water, it fixes itself so 

 firmly to the bottom, that on taking it by the tail, the whole pail by that means 

 was lifted, though it held some gallons, and that without removing the fish from 

 its hold " (Pennant). 



Means of capture. — The trawl, the trammel, or other nets ; while Mr. Cornish 

 (Zool. p. 3532) records a male full of milt, and nearly as large as a full grown 

 female, taken on March 28th, 1873, at Penzance, in about 30 fathoms of 

 water, by means of a surface mackerel net. This specimen instead of being red 

 " was of the usual dull leaden blue of the female over the back, inclining to the 

 usual dirty white on the belly." In the Zoologist for 1876 (p. 4961) the same 

 observer records two females of this species captured . in mackerel drift nets at 

 Penzance fishing at the surface of deep water. Couch likewise remarks upon 

 their occasionally being taken in this way. 



Baits. — Rarely takes a bait although it has been known to do so. 



Breeding. — Adults come in-shore for this purpose from March until May. 

 Bloch counted 207,700 eggs in a fish 6| lb. in weight : in April, 1836, one which 

 was 15 inches in length contained a vast quantity of rose-coloured ova, weighing 

 25 oz. and having 101,935 ova (Thompson). In February, 1880, one of 111b. 

 weight had about 194,112 eggs (Buckland). " Fabricius related that the Lump- 

 sucker in April or May, enters the rocky bays of the Greenland coast for the 

 purpose of spawning : that the female, preceding the male, deposited the roe 

 among the large Algce in the fissures of the rocks : that, followed by the male 

 shortly afterwards, she finally left him fructifying the eggs and adhering to the 

 masses of roe till the eggs were hatched, and that he fought other fishes while 

 watching and guarding the important deposit. Johnston observes (Berwick. 

 N. H. F. Club, 1838, i, p. 174) " The paidle spawns towards the end of March 

 and in April. At that season the hen approaches the shore and deposits her 

 spawn among the rocks and sea-weed within low water-mark, and immediately 

 afterwards returns to deeper water. The male then covers the spawn with his 

 sperm, and, according to the testimony of our fishermen, remains covering it, or 

 near it, until the ova are hatched. The young soon after birth fix themselves 

 to the sides and on the back of their male parent, who sails, thus loaded, to 

 deeper and more safe retreats. He is only one half the size of the hen, and at 

 the breeding season his belly becomes of a reddish colour. The spawn of a 

 single female will fill a large basin, and is of a beautiful pink colour : the eggs 

 globular and about the size of swan shot." At Gamrie, in Banffshire, Mr. G. 

 Harris, Zoologist, 1851, ix, p. 3157, observes — " Upon this coast their nests are 



