OSSEOUS FISHES. 



533 



(Fig. 359) have the body compressed ; the jaws are furnished with 

 eight teeth, arranged in a single row on each jaw, and covered with 

 true lips ; the eyes are nearly level with the skin ; the mouth is small, 

 and the body enveloped in very hard scales, which are connected in 

 groups and distributed into compartments more or less regular, and 

 strongly connected by means of a thick skin. The animal is thus 

 protected by a sort of cuirass and casque very difficult to penetrate. 



With the exception of one species, the Balistes are inhabitants of 

 Tropical seas. They are generally brilliantly coloured; they herd 

 together in great numbers, and in their gambols produce curious com- 

 binations of brilliant colouring in the Equatorial seas. Their flesh is 



Fig. 360. The Coffer, or Ostracion. 



held in slight estimation, and at certain 'periods of the year is even 

 said to be dangerous. 



The Coffers, or Ostracions (Fig. 3GO), are without scales, but covered 

 with regular osseous compartments, which are so jointed the one to 

 the other that the body is, as it were, enclosed in a kind of box or 

 long coffer, which only reveals the external organs of locomotion 

 namely, the fins and a portion of tail. In some the body is triangular, 

 in others quadrangular, with or without spines. 



These singular fishes are found in the Indian Ocean and in the 

 American seas. They are of moderate size, and are much prized in 

 the United States as food. 



