ICHTHYOLOGY. 



301 



Classifica- and resembles the Turbot in flavour. It is rather widely 

 tion — diffused, occurring both in the Indian seas and Pacific 



Acanthop- Ocean. 



Baron Cuvier has remarked, that among all the strange 

 and fantastic fishes preserved in the representations of 

 Kuysch, Renard, and Valentyn, and which have so long 

 excited the mistrust of naturalists, none seems more likely 

 to provoke that feeling than the species which these writers 

 designate by the Malay name of Skankarbauw, or Buffalo- 

 fish ; and yet it now turns out that none is more accordant 

 with the truth of nature. Its sharp recurved horns, the pro- 

 tuberance above the head, the compressed and unequal 

 spines, and the singular distribution of colour, — all exist in 

 a species recently received from tlie Indian Archipelago. 

 It has accordingly been named TmmclUliys by Cuvier — the 

 Greek translation of the Malay name. The species here 



Fig. 120. 

 Taurichtkys varius. 



figured is T. varius, which is from four to six inches long, 

 with a height almost equal to its length. 



The species of Holocanthus are remarkable for the gi'eat 

 beauty and symmetrical distribution of their colours, and for 

 their excellence as articles of food. They are numerous 



fig. 121. 

 Psettus argenteus. 



both in the Indian and American seas. 



celebrated for the splendour and singularity of its aspect is Classifica- 

 that named the Emperor of Japan by the Dutch, and the *'''° — 

 Chalodon imperator of Bloch, figured in many works. Its •'^^^^nthop- 

 body is deep blue, traversed all over by about two and thirty pishes 

 narrowbandsof orange yellow. The pectoral fins are black, y ^ ^ 

 and the entire tail bright yellow. It is a large fish of its kind, ^ 

 sometimes attaining the length of 15 inches, and, as an 

 article of food, is one of the most esteemed of all the Indian 

 species, resembling our own much-prized Salmon in flavour. 

 Another and more recently discovered s))ecies is H. semi- 

 circidatus, Cuv. It occurs both at Timor and New Ireland. 

 Its colours are white and blue ; its length from 4 to 5 inches. 

 The inhabitants of Waigiou call it Mami. 



Many fish of this family are remarkable for bony enlarge- 

 ments of some part of their skeleton, very often of the in- 

 terneural bones. In the Epliippus gigas the top of the skull 

 is swelled out into a solid mass, which hangs forwards like 

 the crest of a helmet, or like the skull of a Rhamphastos, and 

 the interha;mal which sup])orts the first two anal spines is also 

 curiously swollen. Platax arthriticus is another member 

 of the family which derives its name from these gout-like 



^N, 



Fig. 122. 

 Scatophagus multifasciatus. 



swellings of some of its bones. Psettus argenteus is a 

 Chinese and Australian species, represented by fig. 116; 

 and Scatophagus multifasciatus is another handsome fish of 

 the southern seas. 



The Toxotes jaculator (fig. 118) is a small Javanese 

 species, measuring 6 or 7 inches in length, remarkable for 



One of the most 



Fig. 123. 

 Toxotes jaculator. 



possessing the same faculty as 'that mentioned in our notice 

 of Chelmon rostratus. When it perceives a fly or other 

 insect upon an aquatic plant, it dexterously drives it into the 

 water by a shower of drops. Cuvier received a specimen 

 from Batavia, the Stomach of which was entirely filled with 

 ants. This species has been erroneously multiplied in sys- 

 tematic works. It is twice described by Shaw under two 



