28 ELEMENTS OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



Europe and America, and have aptly been said to be the 

 richest banks in the world, honoring every draft upon them. 

 Allied to the cod is the strange group of flat fishes, the 

 halibut, flounders, turbot, and the like. In early life these 

 are symmetrical like other fishes, but as they grow older 

 they turn over on one side, and then the eye of that side 

 migrates to the upper surface, twisting the bones of the skull 

 in its progress. Henceforth the fish lives constantly in this 

 peculiar position, the side of the body turned downward 

 being white, the other colored. The halibut, occurring in 

 all northern seas, are among the largest fishes, occasionally 

 weighing 350 to 400 Ibs. 



ORDER III. ACANTHOPTERI (Spiny-finned Fishes). 



In this, the largest order of bony fishes, the gills are 

 comb-like, the jaw-bones are movable (p. 10), and the 

 dorsal, anal, and ventral fins have spiny rays in front. In 

 some there is a swim-bladder, but it is without connection 



FIG. 7. Remora (Remoropsis ~brachypterd) . After Goode. The sucker is 

 shown on the top of the head. 



with the gullet. Among the strange modifications in the 

 group are the suck-fish or Eemoras, in which part of the 

 dorsal fin is modified into a sucker, by which they attach 

 themselves to other fishes or floating objects, and are thus 

 carried about. 



In the swordfishes the bones of the upper jaw are modified 

 into a long, stiff sword terminating the snout, and used as 

 a weapon of offence and defence. The largest species 



