2802 THE BONY FISHES AND GANOIDS 



segments in the whole series, of which seven belong to the tail. In all the mem- 

 bers of the suborder the spinal cord is noticeable for its shortness; but in the sun- 

 fishes this abbreviation has been carried to such an extent that the whole cord is 

 little more than a conical backward appendage of the brain. The creatures con- 

 sidered to be very young sunfish are utterly unlike the adult form, having an 

 enormous eye, and the head and body armed with a number of large spine-like pro- 

 jections. The caudal fin is not developed till much later than the dorsal and anal, 

 which in the adult are very short, of great height, and placed opposite to one 

 another at the hinder end of the body. The common sunfish (O. mola), which 

 has a rough, finely granulated skin, attains very large dimensions, an example 

 caught off the coast of Dorsetshire in 1846 measuring seven and one-half feet in 

 length. 



Far rarer is the oblong sunfish (O. truncatus), which is, indeed, one of the 

 scarcest objects in museums. It is readily distinguished by its smooth, tesselated 

 skin, and the more elongated form of the body; the entire length being nearly 

 three times the breadth. An example of this fish, weighing five hundred pounds, 

 was taken in Plymouth Sound in the year 1734. Both species appear to feed on 

 small pelagic crustaceans. In a fossil state sunfishes have been recorded from 

 strata of lower Miocene or upper Eocene age in Belgium. 



THE SOFT-PINNED FiSHES SUBORDER Anacanthini 



This suborder, which includes the important families of the flatfish and cods, 

 is characterized by the median and pelvic fins being entirely composed of soft 

 jointed rays; the pelvic fins, if present, being either jugular or thoracic in position; 

 and the air bladder, when developed, having no duct communicating with the 

 oesophagus. It should, however, be mentioned, that a fresh- water Australian fish 

 ( Gadopsis) forms an exception as regards the structure of its fins, having spines in 

 the anterior portion of both the anal and dorsal. The suborder is divided into two 

 sections, according to whether the head and body are symmetrical or distorted, the 

 first representatives of the former section being 



Family LTCODID^E. 



This unimportant family, for which there is no proper English name, includes 

 small littoral fishes much resembling blennies in general appearance, and mostly 

 characteristic of high latitudes, although a few occur within the Tropics. As a 

 family they are characterized by the confluence of the median fins; by the pelvic 

 fins, if present at all, being of small size, jugular in position, and attached to the 

 pectoral arch; while the gill opening is narrow, and the gill membrane attached to 

 what is known as the isthmus, that is to say, the space on the chest intervening be- 

 tween the two branches of the lower jaw and the gill openings. In the typical 

 genus, of which a species (Ly codes murana) is represented in our illustration, the 



