SUB-BRACHIAN MALACOPTERYGII. 165 



or more. Slow of motion, and incapable of defence, 

 it often becomes the prey of the larger fishes, while 

 itself preys on young fish, Crustacea, &c. The male 

 is said to keep watch over the spawn when deposited. 

 It adheres by its disk so firmly, that Pennant lifted 

 a tub containing several gallons of water, by grasp- 

 ing the tail of a Lumpfish, which had fixed itself to 

 the bottom. 



FAM. IV. ECHENEIDjE. 



Echeneis* the Remora. 



This family contains but one singular genus, quite 

 separate from any other family, and marked by an 

 organ on the head of curious construction, whose use 

 is involved in much obscurity. It consists of a long- 

 oval concave disk running along the top of the head ; 

 a ridge runs length-wise through the centre, and a 

 number of short ridges (about eighteen in the com- 

 mon Mediterranean species, E. Remora, and twenty- 

 four in a species we have seen numerous in the Gulf 

 of Mexico) run across each of these longitudinal divi- 

 sions ; these horny plates are finely toothed on the 

 edge, and can either be made to lie flat, or be 

 erected, not, however, perpendicularly, but inclined 

 backward. The body is much lengthened, and the 

 West Indian species, which has fallen under our own 

 observation, very closely resembled in form, colour, 



* E^svjjis, echene'isj its ancient Greek name. 



