SCORP.ENID^. 413 



OT more developed than the soft and than the anal. Ventrals 

 thoracic, generally loith one sjnne and Jive soft rays, sometimes 

 rudimentary. 



This family consists of carnivorous marine fishes only ; 

 some resemble the Sea-Perches in form and habits, as 

 Sebastes, Seorpmna, etc., whilst others live at the bottom 

 of the sea, and possess in various degrees of development 

 those skinny appendages resembling the fronds of seaweeds, 

 by which they either attract other fishes, or by which they 

 are enabled more effectually to hide themselves. Species 

 provided with those appendages have generally a coloration 

 resembling that of their surroundings, and varying with the 

 change of locality. The habit of living on the bottom has 

 also developed in many Scorpffinoids separate pectoral rays, by 

 means of which they move or feel. Some of the genera live 

 at a considerable depth, but apparently not beyond 300 

 fathoms. Nearly all are distinguished by a powerful armature 

 either of the head, or fin spines, or both ; and in some the 

 spines have been developed into poison organs. 



The only fossil representative known at present is a 

 species of Scorpoina from the Eocene of Oran. 



Sebastes. — Head and body compressed ; crown of the head 

 scaly to, or even beyond, the orbits ; no transverse groove on 

 the occiput. Body covered with scales of moderate or small size, 

 and without skinny tentacles. Fin-rays not elongate ; one dorsal, 

 divided by a notch into a spinous and soft portion, with twelve 

 or thirteen spines ; the anal with three. No pectoral appendages. 

 Villiform teeth in the jaws, on the vomer, and generally on the 

 palatine bones. Vertebrae more than twenty-four. 



About twenty species are known, principally from seas of 

 the temperate zones, as from the coasts of Northern Europe 

 (>S'. norveyicus, S. viviparus), of Japan, California, New Zealand, 

 and Van Diemen's Land. All seem to prefer deep water to 

 the surface, and Sebastes macrochir has been obtained at a 



