BALLAN WRASS. 
29 
down opposite the termination of the dorsal fin. This fin 
begins a little behind the origin of the pectoral, with twenty 
firm rays, each one tipped with a soft process, the hindmost 
portion more expanded, having eleven soft rays; pectoral with 
fifteen; anal having two firm and tipped rays, and ten soft, 
the two last from one root; ventrals six rays, the first firm; 
caudal fin thirteen. 
Colour lively, but very various in different individuals, the 
highest brilliancy very soon declining. Iris of the eye crimson, 
with a dark or purple border. The body yellowish, orange, 
or golden; back and top of the head brown; whitish or yellow, 
or mottled with orange on the belly; in some examples a 
general tendency to green, which is even to be discerned 
through the flesh. In the younger specimens there is often a 
beautiful and varied stripe of lighter colour, with touches of blue 
and pink, from behind the eye to the tail; sometimes blue 
spots on the tail fin. In the old individuals almost every scale 
is marked with a round spot of lighter colour, with a border 
of red, brown, or orange. 
It is probable that in all the Wrasses the teeth are shed 
with regularity. They are hollow at the root, and, in the 
Corkwing especially, each one rises through its own membra- 
nous sheath to supply the place of another that is about to 
be thrown off. The depression referred to between the eyes 
forms a cavity that accommodates the retracted action of the 
complicated apparatus which is connected with the motions of 
the upper jaw, and which are guided by muscles that act 
through the means of tendons. A large muscle acts upon 
the angles of both jaws, to enable them to crush its food, 
while the curtains which lie across the mouth above and below 
are supplied with large nerves of sensation, derived from what 
may he called the facial nerve, and the lowest of the two 
branches being the largest. The whole structure of these parts 
points out the existence of a union of much strength with 
high sensibility of taste and feeling. 
There is reason to believe that the Corkling of Jenyns and 
Yarrell, ,Lahrus jtusillus, is only a younger condition of the 
Ballan "Wrass. 
