58 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Some of the species vary considerably in colour ; thus, Hippocampus guttulatus a species with 

 seventeen rays in the dorsal fin is sometimes black, with brown cross-bands ; other specimens are 

 light or dark-brown. Sometimes brown specimens have a black head and a black tail, or the body 

 may be marbled with a dark tint, and dotted over with black spots and smaller spots of white. Most 

 of the species are from the Australian, Malayan, China, and Indian Seas, and vary in length from 

 two to about six inches, though the Hippocampus lonyirostris, from the China Seas, reaches a length 

 of eleven inches. These fishes may be termed the marsupials of the sea, and Yarrell compares the 

 pouch in which the eggs are borne to the fold of skin in which the Wandering Penguin carries its 

 solitary egg in safety over the great wastes of waters. 



ORDER III. ANACANTHINI, OR SOFT-FINNED FISHES. 



Dr. Giinther divides the fishes which have no spiny rays in the vertical and ventral fins, and 

 which have the ventral fins, when present, placed under the throat, into two principal groups, which 

 are typified by the Cod and the Sole. This order of fishes has been named Anacanthini. When 

 the air-bladder exists it never communicates by a pneumatic duct with the fore part of the throat, 



SUB-ORDER I. GADOIDEI. 



The Cod-like division is subdivided into six families, according to the position and degrees of 



development of the fins. 



FAMILY I. GADOPSID.E. 



This family is known only from a single genus (Gadopsis), which is found in the fresh water.* 

 of South Australia and Tasmania, and has the fins formed partly of spines. 



FAMILY II. LYCODID^E. 



This family includes but three genera, and one of these (Gymnelis) is met with on the south 

 coast of England. It is commonly known as the Beardless Ophidium, and is the Gymnelis imberbis. 

 In this genus the body is generally naked and elongated ; there is no air-bladder ; there are six 

 branch iostegal rays ; the vertical fins are united so as to extend down the back, and there are no ventral 

 fins. The British species is rare, and is about three inches long and about a quarter of an inch deep. 



FAMILY III. GADID^E, THE COD FAMILY. 



The Cod family includes twenty-one genera, in all of which the somewhat elongated body 

 is covered with small smooth scales. One, two, or three dorsal fins occupy the whole length of 

 the back, and there are one or two anal fins between the vent and the tail. The caudal fin, or tail, is 

 separated from both the dorsal and anal fins ; the ventral fins are placed on the under side of the 

 throat. These fishes all inhabit the Arctic and tempei-ate seas. 



THE COD (Gadus morrhua). 



The Cod is everywhere a voracious fish, taking almost any bait that may be offered, but 

 feeding chiefly on Crustacea, shell-fish, worms, and small fishes of various kinds. The natural feeding- 

 grounds are elevated plains, or hills on the sea-bed, where they find their food on the bottom, 

 guided by the sensitive barbel, which hangs from the under lip. As an instance of their voracity, 

 it may be mentioned that Mr. Couch took thirty-five crabs none smaller than half-a crown from 

 the stomach of one Cod, and he records eighteen different species of crabs, and twelve long-tailed 

 crustaceans allied to the lobster, as having been found at different times in the stomachs of Codfish 

 in the English Channel. Their digestion is rapid, and the brittle crust of the crab is soon so far 

 dissolved by the gastric juice as to become flexible. The Sea-Mouse, various bivalve shells, and stones 

 encrusted with Lepralia and other Polyzoa, all contribute to satisfy the hunger of the Cod, though 

 it can only be presumed that after the Polyzoa have been dissolved the stones are ejected from the 

 stomach. The records of the fish upon which they feed are not numerous, but in one case six Picked 

 Dog-fishes, each nine inches long, were found in the stomach of a Cod. 



The fish are most prevalent at a depth of from twenty to fifty fathoms, and extend throughout 

 the North European Seas, from Iceland as far south as Gibraltar, but the species does not enter the 

 Mediterranean. A peculiar variety is found on the coast of Greenland. The species extends, 

 along the North American coast southward as far as New York. The Cod is in the best condition 



