20 JfATtfRl-L BISTORT. 



It is a short, puffy-looking brute, with some power of blowing 

 itself out into a balloon shape, but it is (to judge from my living 

 fish) by no means a match in this art for some of its- neighbours, 

 to be presently noticed* 



After Dioclon comes Triodon, with two " teeth " in the upper 

 jaw, and one in the lower. I have not got any specimens here. 



The nest genus is Xeno-pterus, which we have not got, but which: 

 I cannot refrain from noticing, for the benefit of members ordered 

 to Burma. It is a yarn of the Burmese that these little fishes 

 when they see a mau or any other large animal in the water, fall 

 upon him in shoals, and bite little bits out of him till there is none 

 left. Retaliation in kind is impossible or nearly so, as the whole 

 family of Gyrnnodonts are bad eating, in degrees which range from 

 mere nastiness up to sheer poisonousness. 



After this amiable creature como the Tetrodons, or Parrot-fishes 

 with two so-called " teeth " in each jaw, very abundant here, and 

 known to Marathas as " Ken." They do a lot of harm to tackle 

 by biting through it, and when caught are useless, but lie open 

 to retaliation of a sort, as they survive for some time out of water, 

 and are always on landing "handed over to the tormentors/' namely, 

 gamins of the port. Now it is a character of the parrot-fishes 

 that when irritated they puff themselves out like footballs and 

 each small boy who has got hold of one forthwith proceeds to 

 tickle the fish's stomach, a sufficiently ludicrous process to watch. 

 When the parrot-fish, under this stimulus, has blown himself out as 

 far as he can, the small boy lays him carefully down on the sand, and 

 then, retiring a few paces, executes a hop-skip-and-a-jnmp, 

 alighting with both heels close together on the unhappy Tetrodon, 

 who of course goes off with a loud "pop," (like a grocer's paper- 

 bag similarly treated), amid yells of delight from the " marine light 

 infantry." 



The parrot-fishes are the last of the Teleostei, or fishes with a com- 

 plete bony skeleton. We now come to the cartilaginous or gristly 

 sharks and rays, which, although usually of large size, are of verv 

 low organization, the proletariat of fishes. The " Selacfteid" 

 Sharks and Dog-fishes take precedence, "the best of a bad lot,"* 

 They are usually to a great extent cylindrical, or rather cigar- 



* Certain philosophers have maintained that these brutes instead of 'being 

 the canaille of fishes, ought to be classed at their head. All I can say to this is 

 that I wish them a closer acquaintance with their clients. 



