YELLOW 8CORPJENA. Mtmitriptenu Americdnv* 



ANOTHER curious fish is the SEEPAARD of the Dutch (Ayriopus torvus), a native of the 

 seas around the Cape of Good Hope. 



It is a rather powerfully armed species, on account of the strong, sharp, and recurved 

 spines of the dorsal fin, but its head is not supplied with the thorny projections that render 

 the preceding fish so perilous to handle. The dorsal fin of the Seepaard is single, and the 

 spinous portion is greatly developed, rising in a bold curve over the shoulders and back like 

 the crest of an ancient helmet, and being continued almost as far the tail. Very little is 

 known of this fish, though it is far from uncommon, and is eaten by the Dutch colonists 

 of the Cape. 



Its colour is brown, mostly marbled with black, and the skin is smooth 



THE strange and quaintly decorated fish which is represented in the accompanying 

 illustration is, as it name imports, an inhabitant of the American coast, being found on the 

 Atlantic shores of Northern America. 



This odd-looking species frequents the same localities as the cod, and is often taken at 

 the same time as that fish. The skin of the YELLOW SCORP^ENA is devoid of scales, and 

 the ventral and pectoral fins are enveloped in thick skin. The head is depressed, naked, 

 and is covered with a series of loose skinny appendages, that flap and wave about in the 

 water without any apparent purpose. It is also armed with a number of rather sharp 

 spines. There are two dorsal fins, the first being so deeply scooped that at one time the 

 fish was described as possessing three dorsals. The first four spines of the dorsal fin are 

 very long, and the membrane is deeply scooped between the fourth and fifth spines. The 

 general colour of this fish is yellow, tinged more or less with red, and in some specimens 

 marbled with brown. The length of a very fine specimen is about two feet, but the 

 ordinary average is from fourteen to eighteen inches. 



TH&RE is a very ugly fish, found throughout the warmer oceans, from the Indian seas 

 to Polynesia, called by the natives of the Isle of France the Fi-Fl, a very appropriate 

 name, signifying hideous. Its scientific title is Synanceia verrucosa. 



It is not easy to imagine any living creature more frightfully repulsive than this 

 species, which looks as if it had been originally but an undeveloped idea of a fish only 



