WRASSES. 
23 
between that and the 10th. In an oblique transverse 
row, reckoning upwards or downwards in a posterior 
direction from the first scale in this straight part of 
the lateral line, there are 8 scales. 
The beautiful but changeable colouring of this fish, 
of which Linage us said, ’formosissimus piscis Europte- 
orum ob colores varies’, has naturally disappeared in the 
specimens preserved in spirits which have been acces- 
sible to me; but the limits of the extension of the 
different colours may still be traced in the specimens a 
century old, the mementoes of Linnaeus’s studies, and 
are given in our figure. According to Day, «the males 
are purplish or bluish-brown along the upper half of 
the body, and silvery-white below; along the upper half 
runs a broad and generally indented, yellowish-white 
line which commences behind the eye and is continued 
to the base of the caudal fin. A small, round black 
spot on the end of the opercle. Dorsal fin yellowish, 
with a purple or orange outer edge, while a purplish or 
greenish-yellow spot with a curved upper edge is pre- 
sent between each ray. A large oval, black or bluish 
spot exists on the anterior portion of this fin between 
the first and fourth spines. A black spot in the axil 
of the pectoral fin". The anal fin is similar to the 
soft dorsal but lighter. In the females the upper third 
of the body is purplish, with a light yellow band pass- 
ing from the eye to the base of the caudal fin: lower 
two-thirds of the body silvery with one or more yellow 
longitudinal bands. A dark spot in the axil of the 
pectoral fin, and another on the end of the opercle as 
in the male. The fins in the female reddish. » 
As Ave have mentioned, the Rainbcnv Wrasse has 
only twice been met with on the Scandinavian coast; 
but these finds Avere made a good distance Avithin the 
limits of our Fauna. In 1834 tAvo specimens Avere 
caught in the Little Belt off Strib (Funen), which Avere 
forwarded to Kroyee and described by him. On another 
occasion, according to Tauber*', a couple of specimens 
were taken in the Sound, near Hellebaek. 
In the Mediterranean the Rainbow Wrasse is among 
the most common of fishes c . Its flesh is Avhite, of good 
flavour and easy of digestion. Its voracity is attested 
by tales in the literature of olden times, and it is even 
said to have attacked persons bathing. 
In the folloAving Acanthopterygian Eleutherognates, 
which Ave may call Acanthopterygii lysipharyngei d , in 
order to distinguish them from the preceding division, 
the loAver pharyngeals are, Avith feAv exceptions, free 
from each other. This division of the Acanthopterygians 
contains the most numerous and in general the most 
regular forms of Physoclysts, but many of the fishes 
which on account of their characters must be referred 
to this division, are, however, of an anomalous, even 
monstrous appearance in comparison with the typical 
piscine forms. All attempts to arrange the Lysipharyngei 
in natural, distinct groups, have met Avith great diffi- 
culties, for the character which distinguishes them from 
the preceding division is by no means universal (though 
this does not affect the Scandinavian Fauna), Avhile the 
great variety of form renders it extremely hard to find 
constant characters, which hold good for the regular 
forms, as Avell as for the anomalous ones connected with 
them by more or less distinct intermediate forms. Among 
the Lysipharyngei one may trace several distinct direc- 
tions of development, Avhich sometimes run parallel to 
each other, and sometimes suddenly deviate into strange 
anomalies. These directions of development ought to be 
systematically expressed in the division into families and 
groups. This is, however, rendered difficult partly by 
the anomalies mentioned above, and partly by the re- 
semblances, often highly remarkable, betAveen the loAver 
stages of development in different families. Up to the 
present, it is true, Ave have only isolated observations 
of the variations of development — the principal works 
on this subject are Lutken’s Spolia Atlantica* , in which 
Avork a list is given of the rest of the literature on this 
point, and Gunther’s Andrew Garretts Fische der Siidsee f . 
This much, however, may be said of the result of these 
a The Linnean type specimen of <y, the original of our figure, still exhibits distinct traces of the oblong, black spot behind the point of the 
pectoral fin and below the dentated, yellow band which runs along the sides of the body, and also of the anterior continuation of this spot, in the 
form of a narrow ribbou-like stripe, to the corner of the mouth. Cf. the figure given by AVinther in Zoologia Danica , Fish., pi. VIII, fig. 7. 
b Vid. Hansen in Zool. Danica, Fiske, p. 56. 
c »Communissima» Giglioli, Esposizione internazionale di Pesca in Berlino 1880, p. 95. 
d = Acanthopteri veri, Owen (p. p.) Anat. Vert., Vol. I, p. 11. 
e Dansk. Vid. Selsk. Skr., 5th R., Naturv. Math. Afh., XII, 6. 
/ Journal des Museum GodefEroy. See also his later work: An Introduction to the Study of Fishes (Handbuch . der Ichthyologie ), Cap. XIII. 
