FISHES. 545 



whether it be a cartilaginous fish, whicl* may be known by its 

 wanting fins to open and shut the gills, which the cartilaginous 

 kinds are wholly without. If I find that it has them, then it is 

 a spinous fish ; and in order to know its kind, I examine its 

 fins whether they be prickly or soft ; I find them soft ; it is 

 therefore to be ranked among the soft-finned fishes. I then ex- 

 amine its ventral or belly fins, and finding that the fish has them, 

 I look for their situation, and find they lie nearer to the tail than 

 the pectoral fins. By this I find the animal to be a soft-finned 

 abdominal fish. Then, to know which of the kinds of these 

 fishes it is, I examine its figure and the shape of its head : I find 

 the body rather oblong ; the head with a small beak ; the lower 

 jaw like a saw ; the fin covering the gills with eight rays. This 

 animal must, therefore, be the herring, or one of that family, 

 such as the pilchard, the sprat, the shad, or the anchovy. To 

 give another instance : upon examining the fins of a fish to me 

 unknown, I find them prickly ; I then look for the situation of 

 the ventral fins, I find them entirely wanting ; this then must be 

 a prickly-finned apodal fish. Of this kind there are but three : 

 and by comparing the fish with the description, I find it either 

 of the trichurus kind, the sword-fish, or the gilt-head. Upon 

 examining also its internal structure, I shall find a very great 

 similitude between my fish and that placed at the head of the 

 family. 



CHAP. II 



or SPINOUS FISHES IN CENIiaAL. 



Having given a method by which Spinous Fishes may be 

 distinguished from each other, the history of each in particuhtr 

 might naturally be expected to follow ; but such a distinct ac- 

 count of each would be very disgusting, from the unavoidable 

 uniformity of every description. The history of any one of this 

 class very much resembles that of all the rest : they breathe air 

 and water through the gills : they live by rapine, each devouring 

 sucli animals as its month is incapable of admitting ; and they 

 propagate, not by bringing forth their young alive, as in the ce- 

 taceous tribes, nor by distinct eggs, as in the generality of the 



2 z 3 



