224 PISCES. 



FAMILY II. 



SCLERODERMI-. 



THE second family of the Plectognathi is easily distinguished by a conical 

 or pyramidical snout, prolonged from the eyes, and termi- 

 nated by a small mouth, armed with a few distinct teeth in 

 each jaw. The skin is usually rough or invested with hard 

 scales ; the natatory bladder is oval, large, and strong ; the 

 Batistes, Lin. have the body compressed; eight teeth in a 

 single row in each jaw, generally trenchant ; the skin scaly 

 or granulated, but not exactly osseous ; the first dorsal com- 

 posed of one or more spines articulated with a particular bone 

 which is attached to the cranium, marked by a furrow into which they are 

 received ; the second dorsal long, soft, and placed opposite to a nearly similar 

 anal. 



These fishes abound in the torrid zone, near rocks and on the surface of the 

 water, where they display their brilliant colours. Their flesh, which is but 

 lightly esteemed at all times, becomes, it is said, poisonous during the period 

 in which they feed on the coralline Polypi : fucus is all that I met with in 

 those I opened. 



B. cariscus, Lin. (The Mediterranean File-Fish.) Brownish grey, spot- 

 ted with blue, or greenish. Its flesh is not esteemed. 



OSTRACION, Linnceus. 



The head and body of these fishes, instead of scales, are covered with regu- 

 lar bony plates soldered in such a manner as to form a sort of inflexible shield, 

 which invests them, so that the only moveable parts are the tail, fins, mouth, 

 - and a sort of small lip with which the edge of their gills is furnished, all 

 passing through holes in this coat of mail. 



CHONDROPTER YGII f. 



The second series of this class of fishes, or the Chondropterygii, can neither 

 be considered as superior nor inferior to that of the ordinary fishes, for several 

 of its genera approach the reptiles in the conformation of the ear, while in 

 others the organisation is so simple, and the skeleton so much reduced, that 

 we might be excused for hesitating to place them among vertebrate animals, 

 somewhat parallel to the first, as the Marsupialia, for instance, are parallel to 

 the other unguiculated Mammalia. 



Hough-skinned. f Cartilaginous-filmed. 



