ict 



NA TUR A L HISTOE Y. 



TKU.MriiT-FISH OH BELLOWS-FISH. 



of the first four have their extremities united. The colour of the fish is a rose or reddish-green on 

 the back and silvery on the belly. The flesh of this species is eaten, and considered to be good. 

 Dr. Giinther remarks that the allied genus Amphisile may be considered as a Chelonian form among 

 fi Aes. 



The fourteenth division, Gobiesociformes, includes two families of naked fishes which have 

 no spinous dorsal fin. 



FAMILY XLVII.-GOBIESOCIDJE. 



The Gobiesocidse have an adhesive sticker between the ventral fins, and the Psychrolutidse 

 have no ventral fins. The family Gobiesocidae comprises nine genera, and though the sucker 

 is similarly placed to the sucker of the Discoboli, its structure is different. In those fishes the 

 ventral fins occupy the centre of the disc and form its base, but in these the fins are widely 

 separated from each other, and only margin the disc, which is about one-third of the whole length 

 of the fish, and has its border chiefly formed by cartilaginous expansions of the coracoid bones. 

 Dr. Giinther remarks that the posterior or coracoid portion has the skin divided into many poly- 

 gonal plates, which are wanting in the anterior part which lies between the roots of the ventral 

 tins. The genera are widely distributed ; Chorisochismus is from the Cape Sea, Sicyases from the 

 coast of Chili, Gobiesox from the Caribbean Sea and west coast of South America, Crepidogaster 

 from th.e coasts of Australia, while Lepadogaster is found in the Mediterranean, and ranges north- 

 ward to the Scandinavian coast. Of this genus there are three British species Lepadogaster gouanii, 

 usually known as the Cornish Sucker, the Lepadogaster candollii, or Connemara Sucker, and 

 Lvpadogaster bitnaculatus. These are small fishes, varying from an inch to three inches in length. 

 In the Cornish Suckers the vertical fins are continuous with the caudal fin, but in the Bimaculate 

 Sucker the vertical fins do not reach so far back. The colour is usually more or less red, but is 

 variable. In all these fishes the intestine is short, straight, and wide. 



