24 SORTATION. 



Zuarces, in which the dorsal has a low, penultimate section, as if 

 half an inch had been bitten out of it close to the end. The chhnaera 

 (C. monstrosa) has also a sort of nick near the end of the dorsal, but 

 differs from the viviparous blenny (Z. viviparus) in having a similar 

 nick in the anal beneath. One species is not likely to be mistaken 

 for the other, as though the blenny is remarkable enough for bring- 

 ing forth dozens of living young at a time, it is much more of a fish 

 to look at than the chimaera, which is unlike anything else that 

 swims, except it be another chimaera. 



Among other features it is noticeable for its pectorals, which are 

 very large, and may be compared to a beard, and in this respect it 

 contrasts well with our next genus, Nerophis, in which the pectorals 

 are absent, and the body rounded, smooth, and worm-like, as might 

 be expected of the pipe-fishes. In these the body is sheathed in 

 bony rings. By the number of these rings we can identify the three 

 species, N. cequoreus, the ocean pipe-fish, having from 28 to 31 and 56 to 

 6 1 ; -N. ophidian, the straight-nosed pipe-fish, having 28 or 29 and 65 ; 

 and N. lumbriciformis, the worm pipe-fish, having 18 or 19 and 49. 



Two genera are long, thin, and ribbon-shaped in build. These 

 are Trichiurus, in which there are neither anals nor ventrals, and 

 the tail thins off to so long a point that the name of hair-tail has 

 been given to the only species, P. Upturns ; and Regalecus, in which 

 the anal is absent, the ventrals are represented by a pair of long- 

 loomed paddles, and the dorsal is furnished in front with a curved 

 crest that can be compared to that of the cockatoo. Of this genus 

 there is but one species, R. banksii, the ribbon-fish, or, from the 

 paddles, Banks's oarfish. This gives us five genera, all of the 

 grotesque school ; the sixth is Hippocampus, the sea-horse (H. anti- 

 quorum), in which the head is joined on to the body by a neck, and 

 the whole form is ridged and shaped in so quaint a way that every- 

 one knows it, though most people fancy the sea-horse is about a 

 dozen times larger than he really is. 



Our next division, that in which the vertical fins are continuous, 

 include a few more out-of-the-way forms. Here come the two sun- 

 fishes, Orthagoriscus, with their bulky bodies cut off short behind, as 

 if they had lost their tail-end and grown a fringe on the stump. 

 There is no doubt about these two one, the sun-fish, O. mola, with 

 a rough skin and the hinder end rounded ; the other, the oblong 

 sun-fish, O. truncatus, with a smooth skin and the hinder end straight 

 each with the narrow dorsal and anal standing out like the back- 

 fin of a porpoise; known at a glance, and easily seen, seldom less 

 than two feet, and sometimes over eight feet long. Next to them we 

 will place the Cornish sucker, Lepadogaster gouanii, four inches in 

 length, and not always that, in which the median fins are much less 

 disputably continuous, and the body is depressed in front and com- 

 pressed behind, and has a sucking disk between the ventrals. Fol- 

 lowing this we may as well get rid of Coryphcznoides rupestris, which 

 has only been found once or twice in British waters. In this rare 

 visitor the body tapers so sharply from a large head to a pointed 

 tail, that the fish looks like a ten-inch tadpole. Yet one more 

 curiosity in this group, the red band-fish, Cepola rubescens, long and 

 thin, like half-a-yard of orange ribbon edged with a fringe and 

 ending in a point. 



