i98 



THE STUKGEON, 



The sense of touch seems to have its chief residence in the mouth and surrounding 

 parts, the scaly covering rendering the surface of the body necessarily obtuse to sensation. 

 The smell seems to be strongly developed, if it be possible to pronounce an opinion from 

 the size and distribution of the nasal nerves. The brain is very small in these creatures, 

 and from its shape, as well as its dimensions, denotes a low degree of intelligence. 



SKELETON OF PERCH. 



The arrangement of the bones is very curious, and is so complicated that a better idea 

 can be formed by examining the accompanying illustration than by reading many pages 

 of laboured description. The skeleton is that of the common perch. 



In the anatomy of the Fishes there are many other interesting structures, which will 

 be described when treating of the particular species in which they are best developed. 



THE fishes comprised in the first order, are called by the rather harshly sounding title 

 of Chondropterygii, a term derived from two Greek words, the former signifying cartilage 

 and the latter a fin, and given to these creatures because their bones contain a very large 

 amount of cartilaginous substance, and are consequently soft and flexible. The bones of 

 the head are rather harder than those of the body and fins. 



It is necessary, before entering into any description of the different species, to premise 

 that the arrangement of the fishes is a most difficult and complicated subject, in which 

 no two systematic naturalists seem to agree entirely, I have, therefore, followed the 

 course which has been adopted throughout the whole of this work, and accepted the 

 arrangement given in the catalogues of the British Museum. 



The cartilaginous fishes are again subdivided into groups, in the first of which the 

 gills are quite free, and the members of this group are accordingly called by the name of 

 Eleutheropomi, w free-gilled fishes. What quality in the fishes should give birth to 

 such polysyllablic and harsh-sounding names, is not easy to say ; but the fact is patent 

 that not even in botany is the scientific terminology so repulsive as in the fishes. I shall 

 endeavour, as far as possible, to avoid this technical language, and to throw the scientific 

 descriptions to the end of the work, a? in the two former volumes ; and the reader may 

 feel sure when his attention is struck by a long and difficult name, that it is only used in 

 consequence of the exigencies of the occasion. 



The first family, of which the common STURGEON is a good and familiar example, are 



