EMBIOTOCID^. 533 



CORIDODAX. — Jaws as in Odax, head naked. Scales of the 

 body small ; lateral line continuous. Snout of moderate extent. 

 Dorsal spines numerous, flexible. 



The " Butter-fish," or " Kelp-fish " of the colonists of New 

 Zealand {C. p^dlus), is prized as food, and attains to a weight 

 of four or five pounds. It feeds on zoophytes, scraping them 

 from the surface of the kelp, with its curiously formed teeth. 

 Its bones are green, like those of Belone. 



Olistheeops, from King George's Sound, has scales of 

 moderate size, but agrees otherwise with Coridodax. 



SiPHONOGNATHUS. — Head and body very elongate, snout long, 

 as in Fistularia ; upper jaw terminating in a long, pointed, skinny 

 appendage ; opercles and cheeks scaly ; scales of moderate size ; 

 lateral line continuous. Dorsal spines numerous, flexible. Jaws 

 as in Odax ; the dentigerous plate of the lower pharyngeal very 

 narrow. 



S. argyrophanes, from King George's Sound, is the most 

 aberrant type of Wrasses, whose principal characters are re- 

 tained, but united with a form of the body which resembles 

 that of a Pipe-fish. 



Thikd Family — Embiotocid^. 



Body compressed, elevated or ohlong, covered ivith cycloid 

 scales ; lateral line continuous. One dorsal Jin, ivith a spinous 

 portion, and with a scaly sheath along the hase, lohich is 

 separated hy a groove from the other scales ; anal ivith three 

 spines and numerous rays; venti-al iins thoracic, vnth one 

 spine and jive rays. Small teeth in the jaivs, none on the palate. 

 Pseudohranchice p)rescnt. Stomach sipihonal, pyloric appendages 

 none. Viviparous. 



Marine Fishes characteristic of the fauna of the temperate 

 North Pacific, the majority living on the American side, and 

 only a few on the Asiatic. ALL are viviparous (see Pig. 70, 

 p. 159). Agassiz describes the development of the embryoes 



