710 SQUILLA 



only as a stray. It is of considerable size, bright 

 steel blue in the colour, and excellent eating. Very 

 little has been mentioned with regard to its habits ; 

 but from the position of the mouth it appears to live 

 under its food, and is in all probability a bottom fish, 

 unless when it comes to the surface or the shallows 

 for seasonal purposes ; and, as is the case with eels 

 and various other bottom fishes, it is much infested 

 by intestinal worms. It is held in so much estimation, 

 that, for its size, it is one of the most costly fishes 

 taken in the Mediterranean. According to Risso, it 

 winters in the deep water, where small troops are 

 found assembled together. At these times it is healthy 

 and in excellent flesh ; but after it has spawned, 

 which it does on the shores in the summer months, 

 it is sickly and subject to the attacks of the parasites, 

 which take possession of the intestines, and also bury 

 themselves in the flesh. This and some others of the 

 present family have sometimes been described as be- 

 longing to the Sparus family ; but they have the 

 general characters of the scaly-finned family. 



PEMPHEUIS. The fishes of this genus are found in 

 the Indian seas, and our knowledge of them is ex- 

 ceedingly limited, as it indeed is of most of the 

 curious fishes which are so abundant in that great 

 and fertile expanse of the oceanic waters. 



PSETTUS. These are deep and thin fishes, having 

 no inconsiderable resemblance to Platax, only the 

 teeth are very small, and set like the pile of velvet ; 

 and the ventral fins have only one spine, without 

 any soft rays. They are fishes of a silvery colour, 

 found in the southern ocean, but very little respecting 

 them is known. 



PIMPELOPTORUS Thick Fins. These have teeth 

 of a form different from almost any other fishes. 

 They form only a single row in the jaws, with the 

 front edges sharp and cutting, but have a projecting 

 heel at the posterior side of the base ; they have the 

 body oblong, the outline of the muzzle blunt, and the 

 fins scaly and thick whence their name. They are 

 found in the tropical and southern seas, and have the 

 habit of following ships, in order to catch any thing 

 that is thrown overboard ; but they do not bite rea- 

 dily at a bait, and they are not of great value even if 

 they did. 



DIPTERODON, are fishes found near the Cape of 

 Good Hope, they have the teeth bevelled oft' like 

 chisels, and two dorsal fins, the spinous one sepa- 

 rated from that with the soft rays by a deep notch. 



TOXOTES (Archers], These have the body short 

 and compressed ; the dorsal fin on the last half of 

 the back with very strong spines in the anterior por- 

 tion of 'it, and the posterior portion scaly ; the anal 

 fin is placed nearly opposite to the dorsal one, and 

 agrees with it in character ; the muzzle is short and 

 depressed ; and the lower jaw projects beyond the 

 upper one ; the teeth are short and velvety ; but 

 they are abundantly supplied, being found in both 

 jaws, on the anterior part of the vomer, on the palatal 

 and pterygoid bones, and on the tongue ; the sub- 

 orbital bones and those of the preoperasturn have 

 their lower margins finely toothed ; the stomach is 

 wide but short, and there are twelve ccecal appendages 

 to the intestine near the pylorus. 



There is only one known species T.jaculator, the 

 throwing archer, which name it obtains from the ease 

 and certainty with which it knocks down its insect 

 prey with drops of water. Its mouth is not drawn 

 out into a pipe like that of the chelmon ; but it does 



S Q U I R R E L. 



not appear to be less dexterous in squirting the water, 

 which it can do with certainty to the distance of three 

 feet or more, and instantly bring clown its game to 

 the surface of the water. It is said to be equally 

 successful when the insect is reposing on the her- 

 bage or the bank, and when it is on the wing. It is 

 a very amusing little fish, and admits of being kept 

 in a jar of water, where it will shoot the flies pre- 

 sented to it with the same alacrity as when it is at 

 its freedom in the sea. The shores of India, China, 

 and the oriental islands, where vegetation grows close 

 to, or in, the water, are the favourable situations for 

 these curious fish ; and they are not timid or sus- 

 picious, but will allow one to stand by and see the 

 dexterity of their archery. 



Taken altogether, the scaly-finned fishes are a 

 curious race, differing in many respects from any 

 others of the class ; but we are too little acquainted 

 with them for being able fully to understand their 

 economy, or trace their connexion with the rest of 

 nature. 



SQUILLA (Fabricius). A genus of crustaceous 

 animals, belonging to the order Stomapoda, having 

 the body long and semi-cylindric, somewhat resem- 

 bling that of a lobster, being arched above and flat 

 beneath, the last segment rounded and spined, or 

 toothed, on its posterior margin ; the eyes are placed 

 on very short footstalks, the interior antenna; have 

 three filaments, the exterior single, but covered at 

 the base by a broad scale ; the thoracic shield is broad 

 and somewhat depressed ; the first pair of legs, or 

 rather leg-like organs, are long and strong, and formed 

 for powerful prehension ; the last joint shutting upon 

 the preceding, with strong spines, in the same manner 

 as the fore-leg of one of the Mantida; ; the four fol- 

 lowing pairs of legs are short, especially the third 

 pair, terminated by a small, flattened, and rounded 

 plate, and a curved apical spine, the three posterior 

 pairs of legs being very slender, the femora being 

 furnished with a long and slender filiform appendage. 

 The species are somewhat numerous. They are 

 chiefly inhabitants of the seas of warm climates, but 

 one or two of the species have occasionally been 

 taken upon our own coasts ; some of them are of 

 considerable size, and are employed for food by the 

 inhabitants of the Mediterranean, in the same manner 

 as lobsters. The typical species is the Squilla (Cancer) 

 mantis, Linna-us, which is very common in the Medi- 

 terranean ocean. It grows to the length of seven 

 inches. The genera Coronis and Gonodactylus have 

 been separated from Squilla by Latreille, upon slight 

 structural modifications. 



SQUIRREL (Sciurus). A numerous, very pretty, 

 and highly amusing genus of rodent animals, of small 

 size, which reside and find their food chiefly in trees, 

 and are as much at home there as the handed ani- 

 mals, which they in general beat in the velocity of 

 their motions, while their aspect is as pleasing as that 

 of the monkeys is repulsive. Squirrels are exceed- 

 ingly numerous as a genus, and their characters at 

 once distinguish them from all the rest of the Rodentia, 

 and yet they differ so much from each other, that they 

 admit of division into subgenera or groups, besides 

 their distinction into species. 



They are all possessed of clavicles, which enable 

 them to use their fore legs like arms, either in grasp- 

 ing or in conveying substances to the mouth, bat in 

 doing so they have to use both legs, as the paws are 

 not sufficiently prehensile for being used as hands. 



