Date: Sunday f 20, 2012
Corkwing Sea Fish
This is the most abundant of the Wrasses which are found on the west coasts of the kingdom, so that a boy has been known to catch sixty with a line at one time. It is perhaps less numerous as we proceed northward, but it is met with on the coasts of Sweden and Norway. It keeps in shallower water than the generality of this family, and is often seen in the gullies of rocks half uncovered by the ebbing tide, where it feeds on crustaceous animals, and is always ready to take a bait.
In search of food it also wanders in various directions, and an observer sitting on a rock as the tide is flowing may perceive considerable numbers passing hastily in companies of two or three from one clump of oreweed to another, along the beach, for it is in such situations they expect to supply their wants, and they do not remain long at a distance from concealment or shelter.
In common with other Wrasses, the roe of the Corkwing is shed in spring,and the young, of a pale green colour, and perhaps less than an inch in length, are seen basking or loitering in shallow water on the borders of rocks through the summer. The fullgrown fishes will also remain in pools of the rocks, where they are not unfrequently caught in the shrimp-net. No use is made of this fish as food.
The Corkwing seldom exceeds five or six inches in length, deep in the body, and compressed, so that in many instances the depth will be one third of the length. The head slopes in more or less of a waved line from the origin of the dorsal fin to the snout, jaws almost equal, gape narrow, teeth in regular order, but often in irregular stages of development, first plate of the gill covers serrated. Large scales on the cheeks and body. Lateral line nearer the back, bending down surhlenly opposite the termination of the dorsal fin.
This fin is furnished with sixteen firm and nine soft rays, pectoral round, fourteen rays, ventrals close together, with one firm and five soft rays, anal fin three firm and nine soft rays, the two last from one root, tail fourteen rays.
Like others of this family, the Corkwing varies in its colour. Upper part of the head and back usually brownish, with stripes of red and green on the gill covers, sides a faint green, with numerous lightish red stripes, yellow or greenish below. The fins are similarly varied, but the colours are commonly fainter than in others of the Wrasses.
Near the tail, close to or on the termination of the lateral line, is a conspicuous black spot, which is seen in the earliest stage of growth of this fish, and its absence forms the only distinguishing mark of the supposed species, called the Gibbous Wrass by Pennant.
This last-mentioned fish received its name on account of a considerable elevation of its back, and consequent greater depth than exists in others of this family, with a greater sweep downwards to the mouth,but the almost unanimous opinion of observers has concluded that it constitutes only an older and perhaps better fed stage of the Common Corkwing, from which the lateral spot near the tail has disappeared.
It has been met with of the length of nine inches, with a deeper profile than is usual with the Corkwing, but I have never seen the back so high as is represented in Pennant's figure. Those also that have fallen under my notice have come from a greater depth of water than is usual with the Corkwing.
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