2716 



THE BONY FISHES AND GANOIDS 



of the dorsal fin, the iris yellow, a semilunar golden spot between the eyes, and a 

 violet patch on the gill cover. The back is silvery gray with a tinge of blue, and 

 the under surface steely, with longitudinal golden bands on the sides. In length it 

 seldom exceeds a foot. Fully adult examples show a perfect pavement of teeth 

 on the jaws; and with these the fish crunches up mussels and other shell fish with 

 such vigor that the noise thus made sometimes reveals its presence to fisher- 

 men. In order to obtain food, it is stated to stir up the sand of the sea bottom with 

 its tail. The gilt eye was one of the fishes kept and fattened by the Romans in 

 their vivaria, where it is said to have become extremely flat. Several species of the 

 genus inhabit the seas and estuaries of India, one of which (C. berda] occasionally 

 grows to thirty inches in length, and is much esteemed as food in Madras, where it 

 is known as black-rock cod. Fossil teeth of a gilthead occur in the Red Crag of 

 Suffolk, and the Miocene strata of Malta and the Canaries. 



AUSTRALIAN KNIFE-JAWED FISH. 

 (One-third natural size.) 



THE KNIFE- JAWED FISHES Family HOPLOGNATHID^ 



A single small genus of fishes (Hoplognathus] from the coasts of Australia, 

 Japan, and Peru constitutes a separate family of the present section, characterized by 

 the jawbones having a sharp cutting edge; such teeth as are present being confined 

 to this region, where they are confluent with the bone, to form a more or less indis- 

 tinct serration. The compressed and deep body is covered with very small ctenoid 

 scales; while the sides have a continuous lateral line. The dorsal fin has its spinous 

 portion rather longer than the soft, with the spines very strong; the anal, which 

 has three spines, is similar to the soft dorsal; and the thoracic pelvics are furnished 



