FISHES. 49 



with its prickles. It is sometimes called the balloon fish. 

 It is found in the Nile and Red Sea ; being rarely met 

 with, it is treasured as a great curiositj. 



The Trunk Fishes (ostracion triqueter) are about a 

 span long, the head and strangely-shaped body is of a 

 brown-red color, and covered with an inflexible coat of 

 mail, composed of hard hexagonal scales or plates ; they 

 live on crabs and shell fish, are found in the East and 

 West Indies. The flesh is very palatable, and brings a 

 high price. There are others of the same family, which 

 are said to be poisonous. 



SEVENTH ORDER. 



CHONDROPTERYGII. CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 

 BRANCHIS LIBERIS OR STURIONES. 



The fishes of this family have, instead of bones, only 

 cartilages, but they resemble other tribes in the disposi- 

 tion of the gills, which are furnished with an operculum, 

 but the posterior portion of the branchial are free. 



The Sturgeon (accipenser sturio) is from six to eigh- 

 teen feet long, of a blue-gray color, and has upon its 

 rough skin five rows of bony, spiny plates ; under its 

 pointed muzzle are a few cirri. It is found everywhere 

 in Europe, and, living only in large waters, ascends to a 

 great distance the rivers that flow into the Caspian Sea. 

 In the seas it feeds on herring, mackerel, and shell fish, 

 in the rivers on carp. It is a lazy fish, lying so still and 

 passive in the net that the fisherman passes a cord through 

 the gill openings and mouth without any trouble. Some- 



