WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 19 



more or less encased in bony plates. The most noticeable are the 

 Syngnathi, or " pipe-fishes," with two long jaws combined into a 

 tube, and Hippocampi, or sea-horses, so called because their head 

 and neck form a curious caricature of a conventional horse-head. 

 T hey are mostly marine, small, and not very common, but as the 

 most part of them consists of the bony armour, with a very small 

 lining of flesh, they are easily dried, and make good specimens in 

 that condition, being fixed, while fresh, with wires, in any attitude 

 that pleases the artist. They have genei-ally some arrangement for 

 carrying their eggs about with them till hatched, and it seems 

 that this duty is discharged by both sexes. We have several speci- 

 mens of both Hippocampus and Syngnathus in our Museum. 



The next order is that of the Plectognathi, and the first family 

 it) it are the Schroder mi, beginning with the genus Triacanthus. 

 Th.3 Triacanthi are awkward ugly fishes, with a profile suggesting 

 that of an old horse, whence the Maratha name "ghora." They 

 have one vei*y strong dorsal spine, and two pectoral, a file-likQ 

 skin, and unwholesome flesh. They are not uncommon here. 



The next genus, Batistes, is not so ugly in form, being somewhat 

 like the typical perches in shape, but deeper and blunter. The 

 skin is still raspy, the flesh unwholesome, the dorsal fin has a strong 

 but blunt spine, and ventrals are reduced to a mei-e bony excrescence, 

 of no obvious use. 



A third genus, Monacanthm , rather resembles Triacanthics, but 

 has ouly one spine, dorsal of course. We have specimens of all 

 three genera, the latter two are rather rare here. 



This family contains also the extraordinary Ostraciona, which are 

 completely armour-plated, with a bluff upright forehead, and some- 

 have horns like a bull. I have got none here. 



They are followed by a very curious family, the Gymnoclontes, or 

 naked-toothed fishes. In these, instead of the claw-like fangs of 

 fishes in general, we have each jaw armed with a sort of bony beak, 

 sometimes divided by sutures into two portions. 



In the first fish which I shall notice, however, there are no such 

 seams, each jaw is in one piece, whence the name Diodon hystrix, 

 or the two-toothed Porcupine (sc. fish). The surname it owes to a 

 complete set of horny spines f of an inch long, covering the whole- 

 body. I have got here two specimens, one alive. It seemed to 

 have little power of erecting the spines, but was very difficult 

 to handle all the same. 



