LUMP-SUCKER. 



185 



and the spinous dorsal tin, if present, is short. The fishes are 

 sluggish in habits, and of wide distribution. The best known 

 forms in British seas are the Lump-sucker and the Sea-snail. The 

 Lump-sucker, Cyclopterus lumpus, 833-834, and fig. 87, is a 





Fig. 87. — Lump-sucker, C'yctyrterus lumpus ; with a separate view of the 



sucking-disc. 



clumsy-looking fish with a thick tuberculated skin and thin trans- 

 parent bones. At the breeding season the male is more brilliantly 

 coloured than the female. The eggs are laid in a pit made by the 



