A study on the kinematics of the jaw apparatus of the wrasses Labrus berggylta Ascanius, Crenilabrus melops (L.) and Ctenolabrus rupestris (L.) (Pisces, Perciformes, Labrinae) is presented in a series of articles: I. A kinematic model for the jaw movements in some Labrinae (Pisces, Perciformes) VAN HASSELT, 1978) ; II. Morphology and movements of the jaw apparatus in some Labrinae (Pisces, Perciformes) ; III. A kinematic jaw model for the rapid wide opening and closing of the mouth in some Labrinae (Pisces, Perciformes) ; IV. A kinematic model for the upper jaw protrusion in some Labrinae (Pisces, Perciformes). The present paper (II) deals with a description of the skeleton-ligament-muscle system of the jaw apparatus and surrounding elements, with emphasis on the major movements of the bony elements. In general, these labrids have a perciform constellation of elements, with a few qualitative differences between the three species. There is a long broad ligamental connection between the quadrate and the maxilla. Crenilabrus has the distal tip of the finger-like maxillary process of the palatine lying ventral to, instead of projecting to, the dorsal top of the maxilla, and the ligament between the mesethmoid and this top is absent. Only in Ctenolabrus the palatine is fused with the pterygoids. Motion-picture records of Labrus and Crenilabrus feeding on live shrimps in a tank show a small adduction of the suspensorium and the jaw apparatus during the opening of the mouth with a prominent protrusion of the premaxilla.