250 



THE YELLOW SCORP^ENA. 



ANOTHER curious fish is the SEEPAARD of the Dutch (Agriopus 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 re- 

 curved 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 as 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 color 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 its name imports, an inhabitant of the American coast, being found 

 on the Atlantic shores of Northern America, 





YELLOW SCORP/ENA.-//nflriptenis Americanus. 



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 SCORPJENA 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 color 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. 



THERE 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-Fi, a very appro- 

 priate name, signifying hideous. Its scientific title is Synanceia varrucosa. 



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

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



