SUN-FISH 249: 



diately above the pectoral fins is an aperture which sup- 

 plies the place of gills. They are all natives of the Indian 

 and American seas. 



The most remarkable fish of this family is the unicorn. 



The entrails of this kind are full of small shells and 

 coralline substances ; which, by the strength and hard- 

 ness of its jaws, it is able to grind very small. 



The flesh is accounted poisonous. It is very common 

 in the seas round the Bahama islands. 



THE SUN-FISH. 



This is the most remarkable species in the genus tetro- 

 don. The body is broad and short ; and its hinder extre- 

 mity is terminated by a circular fin, which supplies the 

 place of a tail. The whole animal appears like the head 

 of a large fish separated from its body. It is destitute of 

 scales, but covered with a hard rough skin. The back 

 is black, the belly white, and the sides are of an inter- 

 mediate colour. The mouth is very small in proportion 

 to the size ; and the head has no projection from the rest 

 of the body. The weight sometimes amounts to two 

 hundred pounds. 



The flesh of this animal is very soft, and all its bones 

 are gristly and tender. It is caught in the Mediterranean, 

 and sometimes in the British seas. 



Pennant has described the sun-fish of Mount-bay in 

 Cornwall, under the appellation of the oblong diodon. In 

 form, he says, it resembles the bream, or some deep fish, 

 cut off in the middle ; the mouth is very minute ; the 

 eyes are small, having before each a semilunar aperture ; 

 the pectoral fins are also very small, and placed behind 

 them ; the dorsal and anal fins are situated at the extre- 

 mity of the body ; and the tail, which is narrow, occu- 

 pies all that abrupt space which lies between those two 

 fins. The colour of the back is dusky and dappled, and 

 the belly is silvery. The skin is destitute of scales, and 

 the flesh is uncommonly rank. 

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