368 NATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



are so curious in form and lial)it that they are sure to attract attention when 

 they occasionally come to market attached, barnacle-like, to the body of some 

 sliai'k. or turtle, or large fish. They are slender, violet-blackish colored fish 

 that are peculiar in that they have the first dorsal fin transformed into a suck- 

 ing disk, which covers the entire head and nape. The shark sucker ^^ of Hawaii 

 is one of two widely distrilnited species, but as they are neither very abun- 

 dant nor used as food, their appearance in the markets is entirely owing to 

 their interesting habits. By affixing themselves to their hosts they are car- 

 ried through a much greater extent of w^ater than their own limited swim- 

 ming powers would admit. They obtain thereby a much greater supply of 

 food than they would otherAvise secure. They may be carried about for 

 weeks by their hosts, leaving them only to secure food. This is done by a 

 sudden rush tlirouuh the water. The remora does not injure the carrier- 

 animal in any way, and as they are of small size, rarely being more than six 

 or eight inches in length, they do not materially impede the progress of their 

 hosts. 



The Scorpion-Fishes. 



The scorpion-fishes •'■"' are so varied in form as to render a brief character- 

 ization of the group impossible. In the more extreme examples which are sure 

 to attract attention great changes take place in the form of the fish and their 

 appendages. The head may Ix- distorted with ridges and grooves, the anal 

 spines lost and the dorsal spines variously modified. The scales may be lost 

 or replaced by warts or prickles, and in others the ventral fins nuiy be reduced, 

 while in still others the pectorals are often greatly enlarged. 



They are especially abundant in the Pacific and form a large portion of 

 the fish fauna of Hawaii, where ten genera aiid twenty or more species occur. 

 In general, they do not migrate, but make a permanent home about the rocks 

 and in the coral reef. Curiously enough, they are esteemed as food in spite 

 of the fact that some of them have a venom sac at the base of the dorsal spine, 

 to the poisonous efifect of which they owe their name. 



The noho or amakaha^'^ is perhaps as tyjiical and as common in tlie 

 market and Aquarium as any of the scorpion-fish. They are indescribably mot- 

 tled and streaked with brown, claret color, sulphur-red, salmon color and near- 

 white The inner or posterior side of the pectorals is l)rightly marked with 

 yellow varied with black, so that when swimming from the observer they look 

 like heavy-bodied I)utterfiies winging their way about the tide pools in the reef. 



The Sea-Bass FA^[ILY. 



Although it is customary for the angler to talk of the great variety of sea- 

 bass to be caught in Hawaii, he doubtless speaks fi'om the abundance of mis- 

 information which is current on the subject of fish ami fishing, and not from 

 a desire to misrepresent the facts. Anything that takes the hook and in the 



'* Echcnris sp. ^° Scorpaniidw. ^^ Scor/HCiiopfiis f/ihhasa. 



