FISHES. 



different genera : in the Plaice, Flounder, and Sole it is the right 

 side; in the Turbot and Brill it is the left; while of the Holibut 

 genus, some have the right and some the left side uppermost. 

 Individuals are frequently tound in which the usual order is re- 

 versed, and occasionally both sides are coloured ; but these are 

 casual exceptions. The value of these fishes may be estima ted 

 from the fact that London pays to the Dutch ,80,000 every year 

 for turbot alone. 



The Cyclopteri * form a small group of sub-brachian fishes, 

 distinguished by having their ventral fins united so as to form a 

 broad disk, as in 



The Lumpsucker (Cydopterus lumpus). In this remarkable creature the pec- 

 torals and ventrals form but a single adhesive disk. The skin is without scales, but 

 covered with a thick slime, and studded with hard tubercles arranged in regular lines. 

 Its whole form is deep, thick, and short, and the first dorsal is enclosed in a thick 

 tuberculated skin. This strange-looking fish is often taken upon our coasts. Not- 

 withstanding its odd and uncouth form, it is beautifully and brilliantly coloured. The 

 back and sides are tinted with deep blue, azure, and purple, while the under surface 

 and fins are of a rich orange. It it sometimes more than a foot and a half in length, 

 and almost of the same depth. Slow of motion and incapable of defence, it adheres 

 rb foreign objects by means of its disk so firmly that Pennant lifted a tub containing 

 several gallons of water by taking hold of a lumpsucker which had attached itself to the 

 bottom. 



FlG. 274. LUMI'SUCKER. 



The Sucking-Fishes (EcJieneis)^ are remarkable for the pos- 

 session of a flattened disk that covers the back of their head, 

 composed of a great number of moveable transverse cartilaginous 

 plates, by the assis ance of which the animal can attach itself to 

 rocks, to vessels, or to other fishes, particularly to the shark. A 

 species which lives in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic has 

 been long celebrate d under the name of 



* B /ci5/cXos, cycles, a circle ; irrepw, pteron, a fin. f exw, echo, to hold ; vavs, naus, 



a ship: because they were thought to be able to arrest the course of ships at sea. 



