. The game birds and wild fowl of Sweden and Norway; with an account of the seals and salt-water fishes of those countries .. . one can compete with them in regard tobeauty. They are in this respect a marked exception tothe general rule, that the farther one proceeds to theNorth the more uniform and dull are the colours. Hethat rows out to fish on the western coast, and for thefirst time sees a Wrasse recently taken out of the water,may therefore readily imagine himself transported as ifby magic to a tropical climate, and waits with impatiencefor the next nibble, that he may behold another of
. The game birds and wild fowl of Sweden and Norway; with an account of the seals and salt-water fishes of those countries .. . one can compete with them in regard tobeauty. They are in this respect a marked exception tothe general rule, that the farther one proceeds to theNorth the more uniform and dull are the colours. Hethat rows out to fish on the western coast, and for thefirst time sees a Wrasse recently taken out of the water,may therefore readily imagine himself transported as ifby magic to a tropical climate, and waits with impatiencefor the next nibble, that he may behold another of theparadoxical beings that abound in these seas. But theillusion is of short duration, for when the line is againhauled in, instead of a fish with colours of the rainbow,a codfish or a flounder is brought to the surface. Of this genus, the six following species are all that are at present acknowledged by Scandinavian ichthyologists. • The Ballan Wrasse {Berg-gyltu* Sw. and Norw.; * The Swedish name gylta, and the Norwegian gylte, are derived fron\the word gait, i. e. hoar; and the Norwegian fishei-meu aic supposed first. ~z W 1; iiC cn 1 UD w < a rt 8 ^ 1 fe P C^ M P-, ni ^_^ 1 3i .4 r- fJ 10 o CO o« pt5 fe P ■ K-- P r^ CO f^ m m « 1 i; H 0 o -d g THE BALLAN WRASSE. 495 Labrus macnhffns, Bloch) was common in oui Skargard,as also on the western coast of Norway, as liigli up atleast as Bergen. Occasionally it has been met with asfar south as the Sound, hut never, I believe, in the is only an inhabitant of salt water, of which the upperportion at any rate of that sea can hardly be said to con-sist. As with the Ruff and the Common Buzzard amonc-stbirds, not two of them are alike. Its usual length is fromtwelve to fifteen inches, but it attains as much as eighteen,and a weight of from three to three and a half favourite resort—as its English name, Rock Fish,denotes—is stony ground. Its usual food is small fishes,crustaceans, and molluscs. It is beli
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksu, booksubjectmarineanimals
