ISO THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



a fish? For the shapes are too various. Some species 

 are very long and slender, others are plump, still 

 others are narrow and deep, or low and broad. The 

 eels, although not related to the snakes, are similar 

 in shape and serve as examples of very long slender 

 fish. The long slender body enables these animals 

 to enter comparatively small crevices, dense vegeta- 

 tion, and debris, and to seek food in places com- 

 monly inaccessible to other fish. 



Most of our common food fishes are more or less 

 roundish but frequently somewhat deeper than broad, 

 tapering both toward the head and the tail. Since 

 such a shape offers little resistance in the water, the 

 roundish species often are able to swim with great 

 speed, which is a marked advantage, as many of them 

 prey on other fish. 



The butter-fishes, the beautifully colored angel 

 and butterfly fishes, and the porgies have very deep 

 and narrow bodies. Fish of this shape cannot enter 

 very shallow water, but they can pass through narrow 

 passageways, and the compressed body does not 

 prevent rapid swimming. 



The skates and rays compose a group that is the 

 opposite in shape from the ones just described, for 

 they are very broad laterally and thin vertically. 

 The fishes of this group have their mouths more or 

 less underneath the head, and they usually lie close 

 to the bottom where they obtain their food. 



The flat fishes, that is, the flounders and the soles, 

 are all deep and narrow and are peculiar in that 

 they swim on one side instead of vertically. Their 

 anatomy is remarkable, for they have a twisted skull 



