190 
ACANTHOPTERYGII. — LABRID^. 
by some naturalists, considered as the young. 
It attains the length of eighteen inches, and is 
rather thick in proportion. The colours are sub- 
ject to some variation, but in general may be i! 
thus described. The ground-colour of the body 
is blue-green, darker on the upper parts, and I 
paler on the lower ; the scales, which are of large i 
size, have orange-coloured margins, more or less | 
wide : the head and cheeks are green with irre- |: 
gular lines of orange, and the thick lips are flesh- | 
coloured. All the flns have red rays, and the in- 
tervening membranes spotted with flne greenish I 
blue. I 
Such were the colours carefully noted down by j ; 
Mr. Yarrell, of a fine specimen sent to him from | ( 
Berwick ; but one equally large from Swansea, . 
described by Mr. Dillwyn, had a very different i 
appearance. The colour was red, becoming i 
pale orange on the body; the body ornamented i 
with bluish-green oval spots ; the fins and tail 
green, with a few red spots ; the dorsal-fin had 
spots along the base only.” This discrepancy 
would depend on the greater or less width of |; 
the orange margins of the scales, in the former j 
case the green hues, in the latter the red, pre- | 
dominating ; while it serves to give a notion of || 
the difficulty experienced by naturalists in de- ji 
termining the species of this charming Family, 
arising from the variableness of their coloration. 
The habits of the European Wrasses appear | 
to agree with those of their congeners in sunnier 
seas. The vast reefs and marine shrubberies of 
coral, with their innumerable animalcules, are in- 
deed wanting in our northern latitudes, but still ; 
our rocks are inhabited by multitudes of soft- j> 
