270 ZOOLOGY. 



black, and pointed bone, similar in form, and apparently 

 in office, to the beak, or rostrum, continued from the 

 upper jaw of the sword-fish. 



Average length of the species 4 inches. Body long 

 and compressed. Colour, uniformly silver-white ; iris 

 silvery. Pectoral fins long and slender ; dorsal and 

 anal placed far back and opposite to each other. 



Taken near the surface of the sea, in lats. 3 S. and 

 5N., Pacific Ocean. 



ORDER, THORACICI. 

 THE SUCKING-FISH. 



(Echeneis Remora, Linn.,/ 



In its general appearance, the Sucking-fish seems 

 well adapted for an associate of the shark, on which it 

 most usually attends. Its body is black and smooth ; 

 its head hideous ; and its fins, though complete in 

 number, are, for the most part, short and broad. The 

 mouth is round and capacious, and the lower jaw 

 protrudes far beyond the upper. The lips, as well as 

 the jaws, are provided with numerous rows of sharp 

 teeth ; while the palate, tongue, and some bony plates 

 lining the gullet, are covered with a profusion of small 

 spines. The eyes are dark-coloured, of moderate size, 

 and planted high in the head. The buckler, or sucker, 

 so peculiar to this fish, occupies the top of the head, 

 and extends over a portion of the back. It is of oval 

 form, and composed of many distinct portions of bone. 

 Its upper surface is furnished with several rows of thin 

 transverse bony plates, or stria,* projecting obliquely 



* The number of striae on the buckler can scarcely be regarded as a 

 specific character of this fish ; since, amongst many examples, all of 

 them evidently identical with this species, we found their number to 

 vary from 16 to 17, 18 and 19. 



