204 PISCES. 



fin, longer than the fish, which supports it in the air for some time. Thus 

 they are seen flying above the surface of the water, in order to escape from 

 Dolphins and other varacious fishes; they fall into it again, however, in a 

 few seconds. 



D. volitans, the Mediterranean species, is a foot long? brown above; 

 reddish beneath; fins black, variously marked with blue. 



D. orientalis t Cuv., is a neighbouring species from the Indian Ocean. 



COTTTJS, Lin. 



Head broad, depressed, mailed, and variously armed with spines or tuber- 

 cles; two dorsals; teeth front of the vomer, but none on the palatines; six 

 rays in the branchiae, and only three or four in the ventrals. The inferior 

 pectoral rays, as in Trachinus, are not branched. 



Those that inhabit fresh water have a nearly smooth head, and but one 

 spine to the preoperculum; their first dorsal is very low. The most com- 

 mon species is 



C. gobio, L. (The River Bull-head. ) A small blackish fish, four or five 

 inches in length . 



The salt water species are more spinous, and when irritated their head 

 becomes still more inflated. Such is 



C. ,scarpius, L. (The Father-Lasher.) Three spines on the preoper- 

 culum. 



Other groups have lately been observed, which are partly allied 

 to Cottus and partly to Scorpaena. One of them is the 



HEMITRIPTERUS, Cuv. 



The head depressed, and two dorsals as in Cottus; no regular scales on the 

 skin, but teeth in the palate. The head is bristly and spinous, and has seve- 

 ral cutaneous appendages. The first dorsal is deeply emarginate, a circum- 

 stance which has led some authors to believe they had three. 



But one species is known, (from North America,) Cottus tripterygius, 

 which is taken along with the Cod. From one to two feet long, tinged with 

 yellow and red, varied with brown. 



SCORP^ENA, Lin. 



The head, like that of a Cottus, mailed and roughened, but compressed on 

 the sides; body covered with scales; several rays in the branchise, and but a 

 single dorsal. If we except the armature of the cheek, and the tubercles, 

 which frequently give them an odd appearance, they closely approximate 

 to certain Percoides, such as the Acermse andtheCentropristes; but though 

 the inferior rays of their pectorals, as in Cottus, are articulated, they are 

 simple and not branched. 



The remaining genera alh'ed to or separated from Scorpsena are Pterois, 

 Blepsias, Jlpistus, Jlgriopus, Pelor, Gasterosteus (S tickle-backs of Europe) 

 and the 



