Chapter X Odd Fish 



THE average normal fish is a vertebrate 

 creature of torpedo shape specially 

 adapted for living in water, and to this 

 end its form is embellished with fins 

 which act partly as oars and partly as 

 balancing organs in an ever shifting en- 

 vironment. It is further provided with 

 gills enabling it to extract the life-giving 

 oxygen from the water. Almost anyone 

 can name at random at least a score of 

 examples of the ordinary common type 

 of fish, and we therefore propose to 

 confine ourselves in this chapter to 

 those lesser known types that, owing 

 to their peculiar form or habits, are 

 worthy of being designated as abnormal 

 or odd. 



Perhaps no class of fishes deviates from 

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