Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/197

Rh

In this very extensive Family we find great brilliancy and variety of colour, perhaps even in a higher degree than in the Chætodons. The richest greens, purples, blues, yellows, and reds of all degrees of intensity, in various combinations, are the common hues of the Wrasses, especially of those which inhabit the warmer seas; but the shores of Britain and those of southern Europe produce not a few, which shine in gorgeous tints, unfortunately as evanescent as beautiful. Some shade of green is perhaps the most common ground-colour, and the other hues are usually disposed in the form of spots or of longitudinal bands.

Little skill suffices to recognize the Wrasses. Their body is oblong, and spindle-shaped, clothed with rather large scales, which do not extend upon the fins. They have a single dorsal which is lengthened, partly spinous, partly flexible; the spinous rays commonly shorter than the others, and terminated by membranous filaments. The jaws are covered by fleshy lips, often thick and prominent, whence the name of the principal genus has been derived, Labrus from labrum, a lip. There are three bones in the pharynx (or throat), all of which are furnished with teeth, sometimes arranged like the stones of a pavement, sometimes pointed, or in laminæ; but generally conspicuous, and stronger than is customary in fishes. The intestines are either destitute of cæca, or are furnished with two small ones: a