74 



MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN 



VOL. XIV, 



while Acaiithunis maioidcs is striped IcrgiUidinally with wavy 

 bhie lines on a brownish ground. When excited the colours 

 intensify and darken. These spine-tails are quiet and inoffensive 

 as a rule, but when excited, they become dangerous, and wounds 

 inflicted by their spines are dreaded by the aquarium attendants. 



Fig. II. — The Banded Spiae-tail {Acauthurwi slr/gosiis). 



The curious Unicorn fishes, Naseus unicornis (Tam. Miillik- 

 kozhimiii) and A^. birvirostris (Tam. PuUikkdshimin) are sometimes 

 present ; they seem much rarer than their relatives of the genus 

 Acaiithunis, from which they differ in their smaller and usually 

 more numerous tail spines. Their distinguishing feature is a 

 prominent bony projection, the caricature of a nose, jutting out 

 from the forehead, between the eyes. To meet a shoal of these 

 fishes, as the writer did once when on the bottom of the sea in a 

 diving-dress, is a weird and uncanny sight, made more so by the 

 unblinking stare of the great expressionless eyes. 



Of gaudy Parrot-fishes, perhaps the brightest hued of all coral- 

 haunting fishes, the pretty Jul is liiuaris (Tam. Pacha i-clii:t in) is 

 usually to be seen here, easily recognized by reason of the metallic 

 sheen of the blended green and blue and orange that make up its 

 colour scheme and the handsome crescentic form of its yellow tail, 

 unfortunately often bitten down to a stump by its tank mates. 

 The teeth are most powerful in this family, as well they may be, 

 for they browse largely upon branched corals. They are not 

 esteemed highly as food. 



