so 
GEEEN WEASS. 
green streaked wrass 
Lalrus Uncaius, Donovan; pi. 74. 
“ “ Jenvns; Manual, p. 392. 
Yarrell; British Fishes, vol. i, p. 315. 
^ We have seen, when speaking of the Ballan Wrass, that it 
IS common to this whole family to be characterized by the 
possession of lively colours, which in each species are liable 
to considerable variation, and of which the intensity will be 
modified according to the nature of the ground they live in 
or depth of water. But notwithstanding this tendency to vary’ 
each species is found to possess a prevailing cast of colour’ 
beyond a certain limit of which the variation does not proceed! 
These colours appear to have their seat in the epidermis or 
skin which clothes the body, and especially covers that 
donated portion of each scale which remains free and not 
overlapped, and which serves to keep the scales in their place. 
Although the colour diffused over the body is intimately 
associated with their health and life, and even with their 
passions, so as to vary with these conditions in a very short 
time, and the Ballan Wrass has been seen to change decidedly 
under the impulse of the fear of capture,— yet the prevailing 
bias of these tints appears to be under the dominion of chemical 
materials which are constituent portions of the blood, in the 
same manner as are the leaves of trees under similar conditions. 
Ihus, in the Ballan Wrass, where the colours wdll.be red. 
orange, or yellow, brown, blue, or green in different individuals 
or on different parts of the same surface, yet gradually after 
death these colours will fade or change, and settle down into 
