^00 PISCES. 



and sometimes strays into the ocean ; an excellent fish, of a burnished steel 

 colour, which attains a large size, but is infested with various species of intes- 

 tinal worms. 



PEMPHERIS, Cuvier, 



A long and scaly anal, the dorsal short and elevated ; head obtuse ; the eye 

 large ; a small spine on the operculum ; small crowded teeth on the jaws, 

 vomer, and palatines. From the Indian Ocean. 



TOXOTES, Cuvier. 



The body short and compressed, the dorsal placed on the last half of the 

 body, with very stout spines ; the soft part, as well as that of the anal which 

 corresponds to it, scaly ; the snout depressed, short ; lower jaw projecting 

 beyond the upper one ; the small crowded teeth very short in both jaws, 

 the extremity of the vomer, palatines, pterygoids, and on the tongue; six 

 rays in the branchiae ; inferior edge of the infra-orbital and preoperculum, 

 finely serrate. 



The species known, foxotes Juculator, Cuv., is celebrated for the same 

 faculty that distinguishes the Chaet. rostratus. By spurting drops of water 

 on insects which frequent aquatic plants, they are beaten down and brought 

 within its reach. It can force the water^to a height of three or four feet, and 

 rarely misses its aim. 



FAMILY VI. 



SCOMBEROIDES. 



OUR seventh family is composed of a multitude of fishes with small scales, 

 a smooth body, and whose tail and caudal fin in particular are extremely 

 powerful. 



This family is of the greatest utility to man, by the size and flavour of its 

 species, and their inexhaustible reproduction, which brings them periodically 

 into the same latitudes, where they constitute the object of the most extensive 

 fisheries. 



SCOMBER, Linnceus. 



The first dorsal entire ; while on the contrary, the last rays of the second, as 

 well as those of the anal which correspond to them, are detached, forming 

 what are termed false or spurious fins, or pinna; spurue. The genus is subdi- 

 vided as follows: 



SCOMBER, Cuvier. 



The Mackarelt have a fusiform body covered with uniformly small and 

 smooth scales; two little cutaneous crests on the sides of the tail; an empty 

 space between the first and second dorsal. 



Sc. scorn brus, Lin. (The Common Mackarel.) Blue back, varied with 

 black undulating streaks; five false fins above and beneath. 



