THE DORIES 2735 



indicated by the circumstance that their spawn and fry are found far out in the 

 open sea. The 3 r oung both of this fish and of some of the allied forms are so 

 different in appearance from their parents that they have been described under 

 distinct generic names. 



Both the preceding genera belong to a group of the family in which 

 the spines of the anal fin are detached from its soft portion. As an 

 example of a second group in which these two portions are connected by membrane, 

 we may notice the so-called sea bats (Platax) , remarkable for the great height and 

 compression of the rhomboidal body, and the strong development of the dorsal and 

 anal fins, which are often nearly similar in form and size. Indeed, except that they 

 are symmetrical and have an eye on each side of the head, the sea bats look almost 

 like flatfishes. They have the spinous portion of the single dorsal fin almost con- 

 cealed, and with from three to seven spines; the anal has three spines; and the pelvic 

 fins, which are sometimes greatly elongated, have a single spine and five rays. The 

 scales are rather smaller or medium; the palate is toothless; and the jaws have a 

 series of outer teeth somewhat larger than the small ones of the inner rows. These 

 fish, of which there are but few species, appear to be confined to the Red Sea, Indian 

 Ocean, and the Western Pacific, where they are abundant. Some of them attain a 

 length of about twenty inches, and the body may be marked by a few broad vertical 

 dark bands, the long lobes of the fins being black. In young specimens the rays of 

 the median fins are proportionately much longer than in adults, thus giving the 

 whole fish somewhat the appearance of a cheese cutter. Sea bats are found in a 

 fossil state not only in the middle Eocene of Monte Bolca, but likewise in the Cre- 

 taceous rocks of England and the Lebanon, so that the genus is an old one. In the 

 allied genus Psettus, from the coasts of Western Africa and the Indo-Pacific Ocean, 

 the pectoral fins are rudimental. 



THE DORIES Family 



The deep form of the compressed body, the division of the dorsal fin into two 

 distinct moieties, and the circumstance that the number of trunk vertebrae exceeds 

 ten, and that of the tail fourteen, form the leading features by which the small 

 family of the dories are distinguished from the other members of the group under 

 consideration. The body may be invested either with small scales or bony plates, 

 or may be devoid of both. The eyes are lateral, and the teeth conical and small. 

 There is no connection between the preopercular and the orbit; the gill opening is 

 wide, and the pectoral fins are thoracic in position. The John Dory (Zeus fader), 

 which gives the name to the family, and is said to derive its own title from a cor- 

 ruption of a foreign equivalent of "gilded cock," represents a genus with few spe- 

 cies, characterized by a series of bony plates at the base of the doi sal and anal fins, 

 and another on the under surface; the anal having four spines. The eight or nine 

 spines of the first dorsal fin, which is not much shorter than the second, are pro- 

 duced into long slender filaments; and there are but few or no scales. The genus 



