PISCES. 151 



Sucking-Fishes. Above the head and the anterior dorsal vertebrae there 

 is a flat, oval disc or shield, presenting from the middle to both sides, 

 obliquely placed, transverse plates, which may be compared with the slats 

 of a sun-blind (jalousie) these parts are furnished in the middle, on 

 the under-surface, with spine-like projections, which are connected by short 

 bands with the skull and the anterior vertebrae. The upper margin of the 

 plates is beset with fine teeth. By means of this disc these fishes can suck 

 themselves fast to the shore, the sides of rocks, to other fishes, &c. Hence 

 the story that they are able to stop a ship at full sail 1 . The organ, 

 according to BLAINVILLE, is an anterior dorsal fin whose rays are split and 

 expanded horizontally on each side, instead of standing up, Journal de 

 Physique, Ao&t 1822, pp. 132 134. The dorsal fin begins at the second 

 half of the body opposite to the anal fin. These fishes have 6 or 8 pyloric 

 appendages, but are without a swimming-bladder. AGASSIZ and MUELLEB 

 first removed this genus from the Malacopteryyii, where it had previously 

 been placed. 



Sp. Echeneis Remora L., BLOCH Ichth. Tab. 172; fig. of the skeleton in 

 ROSENTHAL Ichthyot. Taf. xx. fig. i, and figs. 5 8 figures of the sucking 

 disc, which in this species has 17 or 18 plates (LiNNJSUS names them strice). 

 In the Mediterranean Sea ; it has also been found a few times in the 

 Atlantic Ocean. The Rijks-Museum contains a specimen from the Cape of 

 Good Hope ; and this species has been also seen a few times on the English 

 coast; YARRELL Brit. Fish. n. p. 280. 



But more widely dispersed is Echeneis naucrates L., BLOCH Ichth. 

 Tab. 171, which occurs in the Atlantic Ocean, on the coasts of America 

 and Africa, in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, nay even in Japan, with 

 23 or 24 (rarely 22) plates on the sucking disc. There are still some other 

 species of this genus. The smallest number of plates observed on the 

 sucking disc is in Echeneis lineata BLOCH, SCHN. Syst. Ichth. Tab. 53, 

 fig. i, which, with a body much elongated and a longitudinal head-shield, 

 has only 10. 



Family XXXVI. NotacantJiini (MuELL.) Body elongate, com- 

 pressed, covered with small scales. Free spines numerous, taking 

 the place of dorsal fin, or placed in front of dorsal fin. Ventral fins 

 abdominal or none. Pseudobranchias none. 



MUELLER has separated this small group of fishes from the large 

 family of the Scomberoids, to which they were referred by CUVIERJ 

 he leaves it doubtful whether Tetragonurus belongs to it, which 

 genus we leave in the neighbourhood oiMugil until further investi- 

 gation has thrown light on the question. 



1 The ancients ascribe to these fishes still more strange properties ; such stories are 

 recorded in PLINIUS with singular credulity. Hist. not. Lib. IX. cap. 25, and especi- 

 ally Lib. xxxn. c. i. 



