120 
AC AN THOPTER Y GII . 
that the whole weight could not be ascertained. I carefully weighed the 
ova in the very thin and transparent membrane enclosing them, and found 
them to be 1 lb. 13 oz. avoirdupoise. Each ovum was l-32nd part of an 
inch in diameter, and after reckoning how many of these were in a drachm, 
and making due allowance for the weight of the membrane and glutinous 
fluid in which they were placed, I estimated the total number of ova to 
be 1,427,344. 
February, 1843. — I am informed by the Rev. J. M. Black that when 
trawling in Belfast Bay he has frequently taken large Lophii , and has 
always found the food in their stomachs to be skate, of which he has, to 
his astonishment, seen specimens a yard long. He describes the Lophii 
containing these as remarkably large. 
August 19, 1844. — A gurnard, o inches long, was taken from the 
stomach of a Lophius about 10 inches in length, captured in Belfast Bay, 
by Mr. G. C. Hyndman. 
January 1, 1847. — Mr. Darragh, curator of the Belfast Museum, was 
told by a trustworthy man at Larne Lough, that in one of these fish, which 
he found dying at the edge of the lough, there was an entire female 
widgeon perfectly fresh. Another person in the same locality, seeing one 
of these fish in a dying state, and having observed the tail of another fish 
protruding out of its mouth, cut the Lophius open and found in it seven 
mullet, of which three were alive : the whole seven weighed from 3 to 4 
lb. each. 
A story is told at Youghal of a living widgeon being taken out of the 
stomach of one. — Dr. Ball. 
I have been informed that the Lophius is frequently killed in a singular 
manner at Keem in Achil. The waves, on receding, carry back quan- 
tities of sand, which, getting into these fishes’ mouths, disables them, and, 
being thus seen from the shore, they are, in their extremity, approached 
and despatched with pitchforks. 
Mr. W. Todhunter once saw a Lophius in shallow water near the shore 
at Youghal, and presented the butt-end of a whip to it, which it seized 
and held by, until thus drawn ashore. 
A similar case is recorded by Hr. Parnell (p. 96), Some years ago it 
was mentioned in the Dublin newspapers that a man bathing in Kings- 
town in that neighbourhood was seized by a Lophius , and so injured in 
the leg, that he had to be taken to an hospital, and suffered from the 
wounds for a considerable time. The fish was said to have been cap- 
tured, so that there was no doubt of the species, 
Family Labrid.e. 
The Ballan Wrasse or Green-Streaked Wrasse,* 
Labrus variabilis , Thompson, 
— maculatus, Bloch, 
— lineatus, Donovan, 
Is the most common of the Labridce , and found around the coast, 
where of a rocky character. All the wrasses are partial to rocks, in which 
respect they differ from the gobies ; some of the latter prefer sands, al- 
though others do not. 
* Called “Bavin” on the North-East coast; “ Morrian ” and “ Murran- 
roe ” near the Giant’s Causeway. [Also called “ Gregagh” in the North. — Ed.] 
