162 FIRST LESSONS IN ZOOLOGY. 



sumes its name of salmon. The tront (Salmo fontinalis) also 

 breeds in the autumn and early winter ; it is not migratory, 

 living permanently in streams and ponds. 



An allied family embraces the smelt (Fig. 165). 



One of the most valuable food-fishes is the mackerel 

 (Scomber scoinbrus, Fig. 1G6), whose range is from Green- 

 land to Cape Hatteras. It remains in deep water during 

 the late autumn and winter, approaching the coast in May 

 and June for the purpose of spawning, its annual appear- 

 ance being very regular. The number of eggs deposited in 

 one season by each female is said to be from five to six 

 hundred thousand. After spawning they move northward, 

 following the coast until they are checked by the coolness 

 of the water, when they return, and in November seek the 

 deep water again. When spawning they do not take the 

 hook ; they are then lean ; but at the time of their depart- 

 ure from the coast they are fat and plump. The eggs of 

 the mackerel, as well as of the cod, are so light as to rise to 

 the surface, where they develop. Allied to the mackerel, 

 though of great size, are the horse-mackerel and the sword- 

 fish, whose upper jaw is greatly prolonged. 



The singular Anabcts of the East Indies is the represen- 

 tative of a small group of fishes called Labyrinth-id or 

 labyrinth-fishes, in allusion to a cavity on the upper side 

 of the branchial cavity on the first gill-arches, containing a 

 labyrinthine organ, which consists of thin plates, developed 

 from the upper pharyngeal bones, enabling the fish to live 

 for a long time out of water. Anabas scandens, of the 

 fresh waters of India, will travel over dry land from one 

 pond to another, and is even said to climb trees by means 

 of the spines in its fins. 



Near the head of the order stands the cunner ( Tautoyo- 

 labrus adspersns), whose anatomy is represented by Figs. 

 139, 140. Passing over the tautog, the voracious wolf -fish 

 (AnarrMchas), the blennies (Blcnnidce), in which the body 

 is long and narrow, and viviparous eel-pout (Zoarces), the 

 cottoids or sculpins, and a number of allied forms, we come 



