Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/183

Rh the above engraving: in colour it is very variable; generally some shade of brown prevails, from plain drab, or dull wood-brown, to reddish-brown, usually darker above than below, and frequently mottled on the sides.

The habits of this fish, as far as recorded, seem generally those common to the genus. Its want of an air-bladder compels it to live for the most part at the bottom, usually selecting some piece of rock as its home, about which it plays, and under which it hides when danger approaches. At the recess of the tide, according to Mr. Couch's observations, the larger individuals, that cannot find concealment in pools or beneath the stones, quit the water, and by means of their pectorals creep into holes, rarely more than one in each, where, lying with the head pointing outward, they patiently wait the return of the tide to set them at liberty. Should they be alarmed when thus watching, they retreat backward to the bottom of their caverns. The observant zoologist, who records these facts, infers from them that the Shanny is retentive of life, in further proof of which he mentions that he has known it to continue lively after a confinement of thirty hours in a dry box; though immersion in fresh water would be presently fatal to it.

Colonel Montagu has also remarked on the Shanny's tenacity of life; stating that it will live out of water for many days in a damp place, especially if put into fresh grass or moss moistened with sea-water, and presuming that with a little attention it might be kept alive in this way for several weeks.

In our account of the habits of the Trigladæ,