48 



CHAPTER III. 



THE PLECTOGNATHI. THE LOPHOBRANCHIL THE ANACANTHINI. 



THE PLECTOGNATHI Singular Shapes of the Fishes of this Order Their Characters The Triacanthinse The Balistinae 

 The File-fish The Monacanthinse The Ostracion The Gymnodontes The Genus Triodon The Globe-fishes The 

 Genus Xenopterus The Tetrodons The Genus Diodon Darwin on the Habits of a Diodon Allied Genera The 

 Sun-fishes -The Common Sun-fish Habits -Characters The Oblong Sun- fish THE LOPHOBRANCHII Their 

 distinctive Features The Solenostoma Characters The Syngnathidse Interest attaching to them The Broad -nosed 

 Pipe-fish Description The Great Pipe-fish Habits The Marsupial Pouch Other Species The Ocean Pipe-fish 

 The Worm Pipe-fish The Sea-horses Phyllopteryx Dr. Giinther's Account of its Spines and Filaments The 

 Genus Hippocampus The British Sea-horse Other Species THE ANACANTHINI THE COD-LIKE DIVISION THE 

 COD Its Voracity Its Fecundity Tame Cod Description of the Fish The Cod-fisheries Long-line and Hand-line 

 Fishing THE HADDOCK A " Great Conchologist " " St. Peter's Mark "THE WHITING Couch's Whiting The 

 Pollack -The Coal-fish THE HAKE The Greater Fork Beard The Burbot THE LING THE MACKEREL MIDGE 

 The Silvery Gade The Rocklings The Tadpole Hake THE TORSK The Ophidiidse Characters THE GENUS 

 FIERASFER Distinctive Features The Greater Sand Eel The Lesser Sand Eel THE FLAT-FISH, OR PLEURO- 

 NECTIDJE Characters -THE HOLIBDT The Largest of the Flat-fish The Rough Dab, or Sand-sucker THE 

 TURBOT THE BRILL THE WHIFF, OR MART SOLE, OR SAIL FLUKE The Topknot BLOCH'S TOPKNOT The Scald- 

 fish, or Megrim, or Smooth Sole The Genus Pleuronectes THE PLAICE Favourite Fish of the Poor Lacepede's 

 Story about Shrimps and Plaice THE DAB, OR SALTIE, OR SALT-WATER FLUKE -The Smear Dab The Po!e, or 

 Craig Fluke THE FLOUNDER THE SOLE THE LEMON SOLE THE VARIEGATED SOLE The Solenette Trawl Fishing. 



DIVISION II. TELEOSTEI (BONY FISHES). 

 ORDER I. PLECTOGNATHI, OR FISHES WITH JAWS UNITED. 



THE fishes which belong to this order present some of the most singular shapes which are known. 

 The skin is sometimes covered with ossifications in the form of spines projecting all over the body, as 

 in the Globe-fish ; or it frequently, as in the genus Ostracion, forms a carapace, or bony box built up of 

 scutes, which rather suggest the shield of a leathery Turtle than the covering of a fish. Often the jaws 

 are formed into massive teeth, as in the genus Diodon, which rather suggest the beak of a bird ; while 

 many, like the Sun-fishes, are short-bodied, and are constructed on principles of symmetry very 

 different from those which are usual in the group. The internal skeleton is often imperfectly ossified, 

 and the vertebrae are few. There are no ventral fins, or they are represented by bony spines, but 

 there is a soft dorsal fin opposite to the anal fin, and both are placed in the hinder region of the 

 body. The air-bladder is always present, but is never connected with the throat by a pneumatic 

 duct. The form of the jaws serves to divide the order into two groups. The family in which they 

 form a beak has been named Gymnodontes, while that in which the jaws possess distinct teeth, 

 has been termed Sclerodermi 



FAMILY I. SCLERODERMI. 



This family, as the name indicates, has the skin more or less covered with scutes or roughened 

 with spines, and the snout is somewhat prolonged in front. Dr. Giinther divides this family into 

 three groups, which are named from typical genera Triacanthina, Balistina, and Ostraciontina. 

 The first group includes in all but five species and three genera ; one of these comes from Japan, 

 another from Cuba, while the Triacanthus, with its three species, ranges through the Australian seas 

 to the north of China. In all these fishes the skin is covered with strong and rough little scutes. 

 The ventral fins are formed by a pair of strong spines, which are joined to the pelvic bone. The 

 teeth have the form of incisors, and there is an anterior doi'sal fin with a few small spines behind a 

 strong and large one. The second group Balistina has the body covered with scutes which are 

 adjacent to each other, but movable. The teeth in the upper jaw form a double series of incisors, 

 and in the lower jaw a single series. The first dorsal fin is reduced to three spines, and the ventral fin 

 to a simple osseous spike. There are two important genera in this group, Balistes, with twenty-six 

 species, and Monocanthus, with forty-one species. These are essentially fishes of tropical and sub- 

 tropical seas, and the species often have a remarkably wide range. The single British species of Balistes 

 illustrates this distribution, since it is met with in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans. 



Balistes capriscus is rather a rare capture on the British shores, but has been taken indifferently 

 in the north of Scotland, the west of Ireland, and the English Channel. It has been named, from 

 the toothed character of its dorsal spine, the File-fish, and from its very singular appearance, the Pig- 

 faced Trigger-fish, though the latter part of the name is derived from the way in which the second 



