372 



SPINY-FINNED GROUP. 



may be considered certain that this fish is the survivor of the ancestral type from 

 which its more specialised relatives have been evolved. The body of the sucking- 

 fishes is elongate and pyriform ; the eyes are lateral, or directed downwards and 

 outwards ; and the cleft of the mouth is deep. Villiform teeth are present, not 

 only in the jaws and on the bones of the palate, but generally also on the tongue ; 

 the scales are minute ; and there is no air-bladder. The second dorsal and anal 

 fins are elongated, and the pelvics thoracic in position. Both in this genus and 

 Elacate the shape of the caudal fin is subject to considerable change with age ; the 

 middle portion in the young being produced into a long filament, which gradually 

 shortens until a rounded margin is produced. At the time of the full development 

 of the fish the corners of the tail have, however, grown out, so as to convert the 



SUCKING-FISHES ( nat. size). 



rounded fin into an emarginate or forked one. Of the two most common members 

 of the genus, Echeneis remora, which is the one represented in our illustration, is 

 comparatively small, growing only to a length of about 8 inches ; whereas E. 

 naucrates, characterised by the slenderness of its form, may reach a yard in length. 

 Sucking-fishes are inhabitants of nearly all seas, and in a fossil state are found in 

 the lower Eocene deposits of Switzerland. 



Sucking-fishes are commonly found attached to the bodies of sharks, although 

 they may affix themselves either to turtles or ships ; and as they are carried by 

 their involuntary hosts through a much greater extent of water than their limited 

 powers of swimming would admit of their traversing by themselves, they naturally 

 obtain a much greater supply of food than would otherwise be possible. The 

 erection of the plates constituting the sucker produces a series of vacua, by means 



