1610 Fishes. 



beyond a few feet from their shelter ; but if the largest are caught, an 

 abundance of smaller ones soon make their appearance. I have 

 never detected the remains of fish in their stomachs, and hence 

 it is not easy to say why small specimens should avoid the neighbour- 

 hood of the larger ones. The largest specimen I ever saw was caught 

 off Tol-Pedn-Penwith, near the Land's End, and weighed four pounds, 

 three ounces ; it was blind in both eyes from cataract. The fish of 

 this genus are very liable to get blind as they grow old, but it is most 

 frequently from opacity of the cornea. In this state they frequently 

 wander into sandy nooks, and into such shallow water, that I have 

 known them taken by the hand, and sometimes they are left dry by 

 the ebbing of the tide. 



Green-streaked Wrasse, L. lineatus. Of this rare species, I have 

 seen a single specimen, which was taken off Mousehole Island, in 

 Mount's Bay. It is quite distinct from the last, in not having 

 the marbled appearance of the face, in having thinner lips, and the 

 second dorsal fin smaller : it is also a more slender fish from the dor- 

 sal fin to the head, and also about the tail. The colouring is not so 

 bright, and is more of a bluish or greenish colour than the last, and is 

 not so interrupted. 



Cook Conner, L. variegatus. Everywhere common. The colour, 

 especially the blue, varies from a deep, to a very light tint. This spe- 

 cies keeps in deeper water than the common wrasse, and prefers 

 a rough, stony ground, with low overhanging rocks. It feeds on 

 crustaceans, and takes a bait freely. This varies its resorts, more 

 perhaps than any of its kindred species. In summer it approaches 

 nearer the shore than during the winter months. 



Coomber, Labrus comber. This is certainly the most elegantly 

 shaped of all the wrasses found in our seas. It is the most slender, 

 and the most graceful. The head is smaller, lips thinner, and the 

 jaws more prolonged and pointed than any of the others. I have seen 

 only a single specimen, caught off St. Michael's Mount, but I am 

 informed by the fishermen that several are caught every summer. 



Red Conner, Three-spotted Wrasse, L. carneus. This is the 

 most brilliant of its class. Like all the wrasses, it frequents rocks at 

 short distances from the shore. It feeds on worms and Crustacea, 

 and takes a bait readily : it deposits its spawn generally in April, but 

 I have found some specimens with ova in July and August. It 

 does not appear, however, that the same specimen breeds twice in the 

 same season, since the April and August breeders are rarely found in 

 the same locality. Each species of this genus, though they are all 



