SUNFISH. 
629 
shading on the back into slate-gray or brown, down the 
sides and on the belly into white, and with a silvery 
lustre, brightest in old specimens. On the sides of the 
head, in front of and below the eyes, as well as on the 
chin and throat, we see irregular, clouded spots of red- 
dish brown or gray. The dorsal and anal tins are brown, 
blackish at the tips. The pectoral tins are also brown, 
but, according to Costa, crossed by transverse bands of 
grayish white. The pupil is bluish, the iris, according 
to most descriptions, silvery with yellow or red inner 
margin and with a spot of the same colour above and 
below. 
Both in the internal organs of the Suntish and on 
its gills and skin there live an extraordinary number of 
parasites, quite justifying, in the case of old specimens 
at least, the appellation of living “ hotels garnis” which 
has been bestowed upon them". The skin of large spe- 
cimens is coated with a layer of tough slime, two- 
tifths of an inch thick, in which there crawl lice of the 
family Caligidce , and to which parasitic crustaceans of the 
genus Penella — on which Cirrhipeds of the genus Concho- 
denna may be found — and Trematods of the families 
Tristomidce and Monostomidce attach themselves. The 
gills are infested with Caligoids of the genus Lcemargus 
and Trematods of the family Bistomidce, the eyes with 
Filar ice. In the muscles and, in still greater numbers, 
in the liver we find roundworms of the order Acantho- 
cephali, and in the intestine, which is generally full of 
a fetid, tough, grayish white mucus, roundworms of 
the genus Ascaris and flatworms of the genera Bistoma , 
Tetrarhynchus, and Bothriocephalus. 
Of the daily life of the Sunfish we have but little 
information. All we know with certainty, is that it is 
strictly a pelagic fish. It has been most often met with 
lying on one side at the surface of the sea — we have 
already made the same observation in the case of several 
deep-sea fishes — to which the fish has been supposed 
to ascend in fine weather in order to bask in the sun * 6 . 
Its lethargy on most of these occasions, however, may 
well be due to its having wandered from its proper 
home. Still, it has sometimes appeared nearer land and 
swimming forward, with the dorsal fin above the water, 
as Gosse c relates of a Sunfish, 137 cm. long, that was 
° Malard, Le Naturaliste, 2 e serie, No. 46 (l er fevr. 1889). 
6 Hence, perhaps, the name of Sunfish. 
c Zoologist, 1852, p. 3579. 
d Proc. Zool. Soc. 1849, p. 6. 
e Zoologist 1850, preface, p. XI. 
taken in the Bristol Channel oft' Ilfracombe. “It was 
slowly moving at the time of its discovery, with a wav- 
ing motion from side to side, “like a man sculling a 
boat,” to use the comparison of the sailor who helped 
to take it; the back-fin appearing above water. The fish 
permitted the boat to come close up without exhibiting 
alarm, nor was he even disturbed when her side came 
into contact with his bulky person. The fellows made 
a bowline-knot, and slipped it over his head, tightening 
it before his dorsal and anal, so that the knot came in 
the middle of his side. Thus they hauled him in, not 
without a wetting, for with a flapping action of his 
ample fins (again a sort of sculling) he scooped up the 
water and threw it over them and into the boat. He 
survived his introduction to the public about an hour.” 
One of the largest specimens that have been found on 
the English coast, 19 dm. in length, was caught off 
Chesil Bank (Dorset) in June, 1846' 2 . This specimen 
was more active from the very first, and swam straight 
into the middle of the Mackerel-nets. The first net burst; 
but in the outer net the progress of the fish was checked; 
and with the help of 40 persons the catch was hauled 
ashore. “Here it dashed about the pebbles, according 
to the fishermen’s account, like a shower of grape. It 
expired in about three hours, after uttering “hideous 
groans,” like those of a horse dying of the staggers.” 
During the summer and autumn of 1850 the Sun- 
fish was observed in the English Channel more often 
than usual; and from a comparison of these observations 
Newman 6 came to the conclusion that these fishes had 
migrated thither from the west. The first find was re- 
corded on the Cornish coast on the 9th of June, the 
last off Dover on the 8th of September. During his 
expedition with the Hirondelle in 1886 the Prince of 
Monaco in the month of September fell in with a num- 
ber of Sunfish in company, not far south of Great Sole 
Bank, outside the entrance of the Channel. All of them 
were of insignificant size. The larger Sunfish he found 
in more scattered companies, but nearly always several 
not far from each other, in the open Atlantic east and 
north of the Azores. The Sunfish thus seems to be to a 
certain degree gregarious, at least during youth. Though it 
is usually sluggish and helpless, as it lies at the surface, 
