FAMILY LABRID^E; WRASSE, ROCK-FISH. 41 



large teeth, and their colours are for the most part very brilliant. 

 Several species are found upon our own coasts, but they are not 

 in much repute, and are known among the fishermen by the 

 name of " Old Wives of the Sea." They chiefly frequent rocky 

 shores, as their name implies. This family also includes the 

 remarkable genus Scarus or Parrot-fish ; which is furnished with 

 large convex rounded jaws, and these are covered with hard, 

 scale-like teeth, which succeed each other from the rear to the 

 front in such a manner, that the bases of the newest form a 

 cutting edge. Numerous species of these fish inhabit tropical 

 seas ; many of them are remarkable for the brilliancy of their 

 colours, whence, perhaps, their ordinary name has been derived. 

 These Fishes appear destined to restrain the extension of the 

 stony Corals, on the newest layers of which they are enabled, 

 by the immense strength of their jaws and teeth, to browse 

 without difficulty, digesting the animal matter it contains, 

 and setting free the carbonate of lime in a chalky state. 



566. The last family of Acanthopterygii is that of FISTU- 

 LARID.E, or pipe-mouthed Fishes; so named from the curious 

 conformation of the head, which is furnished with a long tube 

 projecting forwards, and having the mouth with its jaws at the 

 extremity of this. There is no other point, however, in regard 

 to which they demand peculiar notice. 



ORDER II. MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 



567. The CYPRINIDJS, or Carp tribe, constitute the first 

 family of this order; they are characterised by their small 

 mouth, and by their feeble and generally toothless jaws ; but they 

 have the pharynx strongly toothed, which compensates in some 

 degree for the feeble armature of the jaws. They are for the 

 most part fresh-water fishes, and live on aquatic plants. These 

 are masticated in the pharynx, which is a powerful instrument 

 of reduction, being furnished with strong muscles, that bruise 

 the food between its teeth and a stony disc fixed at the base 

 of the skull. The common Carp was not originally a native of 



