240 LOWER VERTEBRATES. 



perch or sun-fislies ; the scales are cycloid, of moderate size, and the lateral line is con- 

 tinuous and parallel with the back; the head is rather short and small, and the mouth 

 is also small; the teeth are generally conical, but in some forms compressed or blunt ; 

 the dorsal fin is single, and armed with from eight to eighteen spines, and the whole folds 

 into a groove on the back ; the anal fin is elongated, and has three moderate or small 

 spines. The Pacific waters of the United States are the great headquarters of the 

 fishes of this family, but a couple of S2)ecies have also been found in Japan ; and in- 

 deed the Japanese species was the first described of the family ; its vivijtai-ity, how- 

 ever, was not known until long afterwards. California had been for some years in 

 possession of the Americans before any of these fishes were made known. In 1854, 

 for the first time, several species of the family were sent to Prof. Agassiz, and de- 

 scribed by him. The wonder excited at that time by the viviparity of fishes of such 

 a form was great, and was bruited far and wide in the periodicals of that day. There 

 are now known about twenty species of the family, referable to about a dozen genera. 

 The species unliappily have no characteristic names of their own, but the Anglo- 

 American settlers of the California coast gave to them some derived from the east, or 

 still earlier from England, all belonging originally to fishes having no relation wh.at- 

 ever to the viviparous species of California, and having but a very superficial likeness 

 even. Perch and porgee are the terms most current ; the former being given to the 

 smaller species of the family, and the latter to the larger species ; but on some parts of 

 the coast, and especially about Monterey, surf-fish is in common use, and inasmuch as 

 this is not preoccupied, it would be the best for adoption, and has been accepted by 

 Professor Goode, who calls the Embiotocidas " the surf-fish family." 



The surf-fishes are mostly of small or medium size. The largest of the family, 

 Mhacochilus toxotes, attains a length of only about eighteen inches, and a weight of 

 about five pounds. The smallest species is the Abeo/ia ininima, which scarcely ever 

 exceeds a length of four or five inches. All of the species are viviparous, and the 

 ovaries are peculiarly modified in accordance with this feature. From ten to 

 twenty is the number of young. The concourse of the sexes probably takes place 

 in the fall, and it is said that the male and female come together with the ventral sur- 

 faces pressed against each other, and the heads of the sexes in opposite directions. 

 In January the pregnant females have well-grown young, generally about half the 

 size of the new born, and even at this time tlie young readily slip from the ovai-y, and 

 the fish-stalls in the markets are apt to be littered with the foetal fish expelled from 

 their mothers. 



The surf-fishes are not much esteemed as food, the flesh being waterv,. flavorless, 

 and much inferior to the other prominent fishes of the Californian markets. Only 

 their abundance and consequent cheapness commend them to many, but great quan- 

 tities are consumed by the Chinese. 



The largest of the surf-fishes (Rhacochilus toxotes), called alfiona at Coquet, sprat 

 at Santa Cruz, and elsewhere simply perch, has the scales rather numerous, the teeth 

 in a single row in each jaw, the lower lip free all around, and its free fold thickened 

 and slashed or cut behind. It is in allusion to this slashing of the lips that the name 

 Rhacochilus has been given. "It ranges from San Pedro to Cape JVIendocino, and 

 is generally common, although not nearly so abundant as some of the others. As a 

 food fish it is considered the best of this very indifferent group." 



Porgee is the name given to a moderately large member of the family (^DamaL- 

 ichthys vacca) in Oregon and Washington Territory, wliile in California it is known as 



