STAR-GAZERS AND WEAVERS. 373 



of which the adherence is effected ; and so strong is the adhesion that it is very 

 difficult to remove one of these fishes except by sliding it along the surface to 

 which it is attached. Moseley remarks that in shark-fishing the suckers some- 

 times drop off as the shark is hauled on board, and sometimes remain attached ; 

 and that when a shark is hooked and struggling in the water, they may often be 

 seen to shift their position. He adds that as it is the back of the sucking-fish 

 that is applied to the body by which it is transported, this "being always less 

 exposed to light is light-coloured, whereas the belly, which is constantly outer- 

 most and exposed, is of a dark chocolate colour. The familiar distribution of 

 colour existing in most other fish is thus reversed. No doubt the object of this 

 arrangement is to render the fish less conspicuous on the brown back of the shark. 

 Were its belly light-coloured, as usual, the adherent fish would be visible for a 

 great distance against the dark background. The result is that when the fish is 

 seen alive, it is difficult to persuade oneself at first that the sucker is not on the 

 animal's belly, and that the dark exposed surface is not its back. The form of 

 the fish, which has the back flattened and the belly raised and rounded, strengthens 

 the illusion. When the fish is preserved in spirits, the colour becomes of a uniform 

 chocolate, and this curious effect is lost. When one of these fish, a foot in length, 

 has its wet sucker applied to a table, and is allowed time to lay hold, it adheres 

 so tightly that it is impossible to pull it off by a fair vertical strain." W T hen they 

 have lost their shark these fish often attach themselves to a ship, which they 

 probably mistake for a large individual of that race. It has been stated that 

 certain races are in the habit of employing sucking-fishes for the capture of 

 turtles. This curious mode of fishing is practised by the natives of Zanzibar, 

 Cuba, and Torres Straits. 



STAR-GAZERS AND WEAVERS, Family TRACHINIDJE. 



According to the arrangement adopted by Dr. Glinther, the eighth family of 

 the group under consideration is taken to include not only the typical weavers, 

 but likewise the star-gazers and several other more or less nearly allied types, 

 these being split up into five subfamilies. On the other hand, Day prefers to 

 regard some if not all of these subfamilies as the representatives of distinct 

 families ; but in a work of the present nature it will be more convenient to treat 

 the whole of them together. In this wider sense the family is characterised by 

 the more or less elongated and narrow form of the body, which may be either 

 naked, or have scales. A spinous dorsal, or a spinous portion of the dorsal, is 

 generally distinct, in which the spines are connected by membrane ; there are no 

 finlets ; the caudal (except in the tile-fish) is not forked ; the pelvic fins include a 

 single spine and five rays; and the gill-openings are more or less wide. The 

 number of vertebrae in the trunk is generally ten or more, and there are always 

 more than fourteen in the tail. As a rule, the members of this family agree with 

 those of the preceding families of the group in the absence of a bony stay connect- 

 ing the preopercular bone with the orbit, but in the genus Pseudochromis and its 

 allies such a connection exists. Carnivorous in their habits, the majority of these 

 fishes are of small size, with but feeble swimming powers, and living on the 



