ICHTHYOLOGY. 



281 



Classifica- greatly depressed Scorpcmce. The subjoined representation 

 tion — of Plalycephalus chrhonasus will give a good idea of the 



-Acanthop- 

 terous 

 Fishes. 



Fig. 99. 

 Platycephalus eirrhonasui. 



form ot one, which, however, is not so flatly depressed as 

 many others of the genus. They are common ground-fish 

 in the southern hemisphere. Fig. 42 gives a view of a 

 scale from the lateral line of the same species. Synanceia 

 horrida, as the title implies, exhibits by no means an in- 

 viting aspect. It is named Ika7i-swangi, or Sorcerer-fish, by 

 the Malays. S. brachio of Cuv. is the species called Fi-f, 

 or Hideous, by the Negroes of the Isle of France, who hold 

 it in great abhorrence. In fact, nothing can be conceived 

 more frightful. At first sight no one would consider it a 

 fish, but rather as a mass or unformed lump of corrupted jelly. 

 " Totum corpus," says Commerson, " muco squalidum 

 et quasi ulcerosum." Its head and members seem en- 

 veloped in a sack of thick, soft, spongy skin, warty and 

 wrinkled like that of a leper, and irregularly blotted over 

 with various tints of brown and gray. Sometimes it ap- 

 pears entirely black ; but it is always gluey and disgusting 

 to the touch. The little eyes are scarcely discernible in 

 the large cavernous head. This species is said to possess 

 great tenacity of life, and survives for a long time out of 

 the water. The skin, in fact, forms a little ring like that 

 of Pelor above the point of the operculum, through which 

 the fish can respire at pleasure, leaving the remainder of 

 the gill-opening closed, and the gills consequently little ex- 

 posed to exsiccation. The inhabitants of the Isle of France 

 regard this fish as a reptile, and dread its sting, meaning 

 the wounds inflicted by its spines, more than that of snakes 

 or scorpions. 



The genus Apistes was so named by Cuvier from the trea- 

 cherous way in which these fishes conceal the moveable pre- 

 orbitar spine, by laying it along the cheek, and on any one 

 attempting to seize them, raising it suddenly so as to inflict 

 a disagreeable wound. The Greek word from whence the 

 name was derived signifies " perfidious." Since Cuvier's time 

 several species have been discovered possessing this sub- 

 orbitar weapon, but varying considerably in the rest of their 

 form from Apistes, as described by him. One of these new 

 forms is Choridactylus multiharhus, of which a figure (fig. 

 9) has been given. Some of these Apistes, having large 

 pectorals, are able to sustain themselves in the air for a time, 

 as Flying-fishes. One of the remarkable forms of the family 

 is represented by fig. 14. It is the Monoce?itris Japonica. 

 The Gasterostei differ from the rest of the familv in 

 having the spines of the dorsal free and detached. The 

 species are small fishes fiimiliarly known under the name 

 of Sticklebacks (Scotice, Benticles), and extremely com- 

 mon in all the fi-esh waters of Europe. Gesner indeed as- 

 serted that they did not occur in Switzerland ; but the 

 contrary has been long since ascertained. Our most com- 

 mon species is G. aculeatus (Linn.), under which name, 

 however, it is s\ipposed that more than a single kind has 

 been confoiuuled. It is an active and greedy little fish, 

 extremely destructive of the fry of other species, and con- 

 sequently injurious in ponds where these are so\ight to be 

 preserved. Mr Henry Baker informs us that it will spring 

 not less than a foot perpendicularly out of the water and 

 to a much greater distance in an oblique direction, when it 



VOL. XII. 



desires to overcome any opposing obstacle. " It is scarcely Classifica- 

 to be conceived," he adds, " what damage these little fish t'o° — 

 do, and how greatly detrimental they are to the increase of Acanthop- 

 all the fish in general among h hich they live ; for it is with v-^T^^ 

 the utmost industry, sagacity, and greediness that they seek ^ 

 out and destroy all the young fry that come in their way, ' ^ "" 

 which are p\irsued with the utmost eagerness, and swal- 

 lowed down without distinction, provided they are not too 

 large ; and in proof of this, I must assert that a banstic- 

 kle which I kept for some time, did, on the 4th of May, de- 

 vour, in five hours' time, seventy-four young dace, which 

 were about a quarter of an inch long, and of the thickness 

 of a horse hair. Two days after it swallowed sixty-two ; 

 and would, I am persuaded, have eat as many every day, 

 could I have procured them for it." The Stickleback 

 sometimes swarms in prodigious numbers. Pennant states 

 that at Spalding, in Lincolnshire, there are once in seven 

 years amazing shoals, which appear in the Welland, coming 

 up the river in the form of a vast column. This concourse 

 is supposed to arise from the multitudes which have been 

 washed out of the fens by the floods of several years, and 

 which collect in deep holes, till, overcharged with numbers, 

 they are obliged to attempt a change of place. The quantity 

 may perhaps be conceived from the fact, that a man em- 

 ployed in collecting them, gained for a considerable time 

 four shillings a-day by selling them at the rate of a half- 

 penny a bushel. Some of the Gasterostei live indifferently 

 in salt or fresh water, and the one represented by figure 

 13 was taken by Sir Edward Belcher, in the sea at the 

 north end of Wellington Sound, in Lat. 77° N. M. Coste, 

 who studied the manners of these small fishes in the Me- 

 diterranean, relates that on the approach of spawning time, 

 the male builds a nest of stalks of grass and other matters 

 in a hollow of the bottom, a little above three feet wide 

 and about six inches and a half deep, creeping over the ma- 

 terials on his belly and cementing them with the mucus 

 that exudes from his skin. The bottom of the nest is first 

 laid, then the sides are raised, and lastly, the top is co- 

 vered over. A small hole is left on one side for an entrance. 

 When the erection is complete, he seeks out a female, and 

 conducting her, M. Costa says, with many caresses, to the 

 nest, introduces her by the door into the chamber. In a 

 few minutes she has laid two or three eggs, after which she 

 bores a hole on the opposite side of the nest to that by which 

 she entered, and makes her escape. The nest has now two 

 doors, and the eggs are exposed to the cool stream of water 

 which entering by one door flows out at the other. Next 

 day the male goes again in quest of a female, and sometimes 

 brings back the same, sometimes finds a new mate. This 

 is repeated until the nest contains a considerable number 

 of eggs, and each time the male rubs his side against the 

 female and passes over the eggs. Next the male watches 

 a whole month over his treasure, defending it stoutly against 

 all invaders, and especially against his wives, who have a 

 great desire to look at the eggs. When the young are 

 hatched and able to do for themselves, his cares cease. 

 Mr Lecoq made similar observations at another place, but 

 the Italian society to whom the papers of the two obser- 

 vers were transmitted, after inquiring fully into the case, 

 decreed that the right of priority belonged to M. Coste. 

 {Archivenfiir Naturg.) 



Family VII.— SCLEROGENIDiE. 



Joues cuirasshs, Cuv. ; Cataphractoridai, Cant. ; Triglida, Bonap.; 

 Cataphracti, Heck. ; Sclcroparci, Buccceloricat(s, &c. 



The distinctive character of this group is the prolongation of the 

 second suborbitar scale-bone across the cheek to be articulated with 

 the preoperculum in its curve, so as to serve for a fulcrum to the 

 spine, which issues from the angle of that bone. Forms exceedingly 

 variable, but having a family resemblance in their prevailing mon- 

 strous character. Several genera have fewer than five rays in the 

 ventrals, an uncommon occurrence among Acanthopteri. 



2n 



