HABI1S OF THE FLOUNDER, ETC. 457 



life, while all the facial bones of the skull are still cartilagi 

 nous, long before they become hard and ossified, i.e., when 

 the flounder (Plaguxia) is twenty-five millimetres (one inch) 

 long. "The transfer of the eye from the right side to the 

 left takes place by means of a movement of translation, ac- 

 companied and supplemented by a movement of rotation 

 over the frontal bone." Young flounders, when less than 

 two inches in length, are remarkably active compared with 

 the adults, darting rapidly through the water after their 

 food, which consists principally of larval, surface-swimming 

 crustaceans, etc. (A. Agassiz. ) The common flounder from 

 K~ova Scotia to Cape Hatteras is Pseudopleuronectes Ameri- 

 canus of Giil. 



Fig. 415. Goose-fish, one tenth natural size. From Tenney's Zoology. 



Order 6. Pediculati. The type of this order is the goose- 

 fish. The name was given to the group from the long 

 slender bones supporting the pectoral fins. The gill-open- 

 ings are small and placed in axils of the pectoral fins. Lo- 

 phius piscatorius Linn., the goose-fish or angler (Fig. 415), 

 has an enormous mouth, and swallows fishes nearly as large 

 as itself. The head and fore-part of the body is very large ; 

 the skin is naked, scaleless. Its eggs are laid in broad, 

 ribbon-like, thin gelatinous masses, two metres long and 

 half a metre wide, which float on the surface of the 

 ocean. 



Order 7. Lophobranchii. -The tufted-gilled fish such the 

 name of the order indicates have a fibro-cartilaginous skele- 



