144 SKIPPER. 



abound through the warmer seasons of the year; but I have 

 also found pieces of small red sea-weeds, and even of the marine 

 vegetable Zostera marina, with small stones; and as this Zostera 

 is not known to grow anywhere out of harbours, in which 

 fresh water mingles with that of the sea, it is to be concluded 

 that this fish sometimes comes to such a situation in search of 

 food. In a rare instance it has also been taken with a hook, 

 where the bait was made to imitate a living prey; and a 

 description of the jaws will shew that they are not ill calculated 

 for seizing an active object, and to hold it fast. 



The usual length of this fish is from ten to about eighteen 

 inches; the body slender, deepest opposite the beginning of the 

 back. In the example from which our figure was taken, which 

 measured ten inches and a half from the point of the lower 

 jaw to the fork of the tail, the depth in a straight line was 

 one inch; but in its fattest condition the depth is nearer the 

 ventral fins. The head slopes forward from the nape; eye 

 rather large; and in the example described the jaws projected 

 before the eyes two inches and a half, the lower a little beyond 

 the upper. This is sometimes described as turned up, but 

 most frequently it ends straight, and sometimes it occurs turned 

 a little downward. There are teeth in both jaws, but in the 

 upper they are singularly placed; very small, numerous, close 

 set, and spreading along the edge, so as to resemble on a small 

 scale the teeth along the border of the Saw-fish Shark; and as 

 when the lower jaw moves downward, an influence is exerted 

 on the uj^per, so as to raise it as on a hinge, the grasp is 

 wider than at first sight may appear; in this respect bearing a 

 near likeness to the structure and use of the same parts in the 

 Garfish. Nostrils in front of the eyes, placed in a recess of 

 firm structure, resembling a mystache. A row of seventeen 

 blue dots along the margin of the first gill-cover, which, on 

 close examination, are seen to be pores. The body covered 

 with scales of rather small size; and along each side of the 

 belly a row of them of different form, as there is also in the 

 Garfish, and less conspicuously in the Flying Fishes; the use 

 of which is to serve as a point of support for muscles, from 

 which additional strength is exerted for those lively actions by 

 which all these fishes are distinguished. The pectoral fins are 

 small, pointed at the upper part, and so constructed as to give 



