652 Pareioplite, or Mailed-cheek Fishes 
mon among rocks and alge on the California coast. It is, 
however, rarely brought into the markets, as it shows great 
skill in escaping the nets. 
No fossil Hexagrammide are known. 
The Flatheads or Kochi: Platycephalide.—The family of Pla- 
tycephalide consists of spindle-shaped fishes, with flattened, 
rough heads and the body covered with small, rough scales. 
About fifty species occur in the East Indian region, where the 
larger ones are much valued as food. The most abundant 
species and usually the largest in size is Platycephalus insidiator, 
the kochi of the Japanese. The genus Jnsidiator contains smaller 
species with larger scales. In all these the head is very much 
depressed, a feature which separates them from all the Scor- 
penide. Hoplichthys langsdorfi, the nezupo or rat-tail of Japan, 
is the type of a separate family, Hoplichthyide, characterized by 
a bony armature of rough plates. Bembras japonicus, another 
little Japanese fish, with the ventrals advanced in position and 
the skin with rough plates, is the type of the family of 
Bembradide. 
The Sculpins: Cottide—The great family of Cottide or scul- 
pins is one especially characteristic of the northern seas, where 
a great variety of species is found. These differ in general 
from the Scorpenide, from which they are perhaps derived, 
in the greater number of vertebre and in the relative feeble- 
ness or degeneration of the spinous dorsal, the ventrals, and 
the scales. In all these regards great variation exists. In 
the most primitive genus, Jordania, the body is well scaled, 
the spinous dorsal well developed, and the ventral rays 1, 5. In 
Hemitripterus a large number of dorsal spines remains, but the 
structure in other regards is highly modified. In the most 
degraded types, Cottunculus, Psychrolutes, Gilbertidia, which 
are also among the most specialized, there is little trace of 
spinous dorsal, the scales are wholly lost, and the ventral fin 
is incomplete. Most of the species of Cottide live on the bot- 
tom in shallow seas. Some are found in deep water and a few 
swarm in the rivers. All are arctic or subarctic, none being 
found to the south of Italy, Virginia; California, and Japan. 
None are valued as food, being coarse and tough. Scarcely 
any is found fossil. . 
