136 



THE EDIBLE LETHRYNUS. 

 Lethrynus esculentus, Cuv. & Val. 



PLATE XII. 



A GAUDILY marked fish of tte Indian seas, in whicli 

 the body is uniformly covered "with scales ; and we 

 shall find other examples of the same structure in 

 the great majorty of the abdominal and thoracic 

 tribes, as the salmon, herring, carp, perch, gilt- 

 head wrasse, and the like. 



In some fishes, again, the covering of the body, 

 or of the integuments, favour more the character o$ 

 large regular plates than of scales, to which we 

 usually associate the distribution of imbrication, or 

 lopping of one over the other, and in their compo- 

 sition are more or less of an osseous nature. Under 

 this head come the Lepisostevs ossetts, many spe- 

 cies of Trivia or the gurnards, of the Cottus or 

 hard-heads, of the genus Silurus, and even of the 

 Gasterosteus or stickle-backs ; but in a very marked 

 manner in some of the extinct genera, whose remains 

 have been preserved, and the scales yet, from their 

 hardness, retain their entire form, and even the 

 minuter parts which served to hook or join them 

 together. But there is yet a more complete ossifi* 



