176 



TELEOSTOMES 



of the shark. As a somewhat transition form to the more 

 usual conditions of the Teleost, the Rabbit-fish has been 

 figured (Fig. 184 y^). {Plectognathi.) 



'^-<-' 



Fig. 184. — The porciipine-fish, Chilomycterus geometricus {^<z\m.), Kaup. x 

 (After GOODF, in U. S. F. C. report.) Warmer Atlantic. 



Fig. 184 A. — The rabbit-fish, Lagocephalus lavigatus (L.), Gill. X 5. (After 

 GOODE in U. S. F. C.) Northeast Atlantic. 



A final, perhaps the most bizarre, instance of adapta- 

 tion among Teleosts is that of the Sea-horse (Fig. 185). 

 In spite of its many structural oddities, its genetic kin- 

 ship with the Sticklebacks (Hemibranchiates) cannot be 

 doubted. Yet to have attained its present form its evolu- 

 tion must have been carried along a widely divergent path. 

 It may, in the first place, have fused the lines of its meta- 

 meral scales, dividing off the surface of its elongate body 



