FISHES. 239 



An equally well known liiit far less valuahlo fish than the tautog is the species 

 variously called burgall, eunncr, chogset, blue-fish, lilae-perch, sea-perch, and nip- 

 per, — the Ctenolabriis adsperstis of most ichthyologists. Its teeth are numerous, 

 and in a moderately broad band ; the gill-covers are scaly, and thepreopercle has a finely 

 serrate mai'gin. The color varies, but it is mostly brownish-blue more or less suffused 

 with yellowish. It is to be ranged among the rather small fishes, for one of two pounds 

 is almost unknown, and the largest that Mr. Goode had seen was a female ten and 

 a half inches long, and weighing twelve ounces. Its habits are not unlike those of 

 its large relative, the tautog. 



Several other Labridae occur along the southern and Pacific coasts, but thev are 

 outliers of tropical forms. 



There are certain fishes found throughout the tropical seas, and generally known 

 to English-speaking jieoples as parrot-fishes. A species of this group has an excep- 

 tional range, being found quite abundantly in the Mediterranean Sea, and it was the 

 most esteemed fish of the .incients, — Greeks as well as Romans, — by whom it was 

 called /Scarw."!. This name, taken for a " genus " of iehthyologj', has given name — 

 ScARiD^ — to a family. The species are unusually uniform in their characters. All 

 have the body oblong, the scales large, and in about twenty-four cross rows, the 

 lateral line interrupted, the head compressed and subovate, nostrils double, the jaw- 

 bones jjrominent, naked, and overlaid, more or less, with imbricate teeth, the dorsal 

 with ten si>ines and nine rays, and the anal with two spines and nine rays. The upper 

 pharyngeal bones have been said to be consolidated into a single piece, but they are 

 really separate, although the teeth of the two interlock and would naturally give the 

 impression that the bones were double; they have a sliding articulation with the 

 .approximated branchihyals. Over one hundred sj)ecies are known, and the favorite 

 haunts of most are the coral banks and groves of the tropics. On these they browse, 

 and their colors are gay and accommodated to their surroundings. The species gen- 

 erally attain a considerable size. 



The Scarus of the ancients, known as Scaro to the modern Greeks, Scarus or 

 Sparisotna scams, is the most northern species of its family. Its diet is correspond- 

 ingly modified, for it feeds chiefly on Fucus, which it finely comminutes before passing 

 it into the stomach. It was a fish which poetic enthusiasm proclaimed to be such a 

 delicacy that the gods themselves were unwilling to reject even the excrements. Its 

 flesh is said to be " tender, agreeable, sweet, easy of digestion, and quickly assimilated." 

 It was also the first fish, so far as written records, go which piscicultural art diffused. 

 We are told by Pliny that, in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, a Roman named 

 Oj)tatus Elipertius had a lot of living fish brought from the Troad and released in the 

 Italian sea. There for five years they were ]3rotccted, and when any were caught in 

 nets or otherwise they were delivered again to the sea. The result of such endeavor 

 and care was a subsequent abundance of the species about the region and an enlarged 

 range. 



Several species of Scaridae occur along the coast of Florida. 



Two other families belong to the same group or sujierfamily, Labroidea, as the 

 Labridse and Scaridae, but only their names — Odacid^ and Siphonognathid^ — need 

 be mentioned here. 



In the waters of California are found fishes of the ordinary form, but remarkable 

 for their viviparity, known scientifically as the Holconotid.s; or Embiotooid-e. The 

 body is compressed, and generally oval, more or less resembling that of the white 



