236 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
Photo by Reinhold Thiele ^ Cj.] \_Chancery Lane^ IV. C. 
SPOTTED WRASSE 
On account of their greatly thickened lips ’wrasses are also kno’wn as Lip-fishes 
of stinging-darts which proceed 
therefrom as a result of the 
shock, and, rendered insensible, 
becomes the spoil of both. 
Thus the active fish plays the 
part of a lure, and in return 
is afforded shelter. 
The Wrasses proper may 
be distinguished, amongst other 
things, by their thickened lips 
— hence the name Lip-fishes 
given them by German 
naturalists — by the greatly ex- 
tended back-fih, the greater 
part of which is spinous, and 
the arrangement of the teeth, 
which need not be discussed here. They are shore-fishes, living in the neighbourhood of weed- 
covered rocks, or in tropical seas, where they are most abundant, amid coral-reefs. Most are 
brilliantly, many gaudily coloured, iridescent hues frequently adding to the beauty formed 
by the permanent deposit of coloured pigments in the scales. Some grow to a large size, 
specimens not seldom exceeding a weight of 50 lbs., and these are the most esteemed as 
food-fishes, the smaller species, as a rule, being regarded as of inferior quality. 
A well-known British species is the STRIPED or Red Wrasse, the sexes of which exhibit 
a remarkable variation in colour, the male having the body marked with blue streaks or 
a blackish band, whilst the female has two or three large black blotches across the tail. A 
second British species, the Ballan Wrasse, is bluish green in colour, with the scales and 
fin-rays reddish orange. It may be found hiding in the deep gullies among rocks, sheltering 
in the dense clusters of seaweed, and feeding on crabs and shrimps. It takes a bait freely, 
and fishermen have remarked that at first they catch few but large fish ; some days later a 
great number may be caught, but all will be of small size, indicating that the larger fish 
assume the dominion of a district and keep the smaller at bay. 
Amongst the most brilliantly colored of the wrasses are the Parrot-FISH. Mr. Saville- 
Kent, writing of the species which inhabit the waters of the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, 
remarks that to stand up to your knees or higher in water, with such a shoal of magnificent 
fishes swimming round you, is an experience well worth a journey to the tropics. The coloration 
of these fishes, which i= extremely transient, fading almost immediately after death, nearly 
defies description. One of . 
the most beautiful is perhaps 
the Gold-finned Coral- 
fish, in which the body is of 
an intense ultramarine, whilst 
the fins are bright golden. 
Others have the most amaz- 
ing combinations of green, 
vermilion, blue, and yellow, 
in endless variety. Itwasone 
of the parrot-fishes which 
found such favour with the 
ancients. “ In the time of • 
Plinv ” writes Dr Gunther Phouby W. &avHle.KenS,¥.Z.S.-\ \_Milford.on.$ea 
rimy, wiires ur. numnei, SATIN PARROT-FISH 
it was considered to be the Parrot-fishes, or Parrot-wrasses, are so called on account oj the peculiar structure of the 
first of fishes . . . and the ex- teeth in the front of the jaws, which form a sharp-edged beak 
