176 



SPINY-FINNED GROUP. 



ing that the first example was taken by the captain of a fishing-smack when 

 working cod-lines in deep water, goes on to observe that the tile-fish was one of 

 the most brilliantly-coloured fishes out of the tropics, and remarkable for the 

 presence of a soft dorsal fin, resembling that of the salmon, which is placed on 

 the neck in advance of the regular dorsal fin instead of behind it, as in the salmon 

 family. In the U.S. Fishing Report of 1881, it is stated that " there is every 

 reason to believe that the tile-fish will rank among the most important food-fishes 

 of the United States." The fish would weigh from 10 lbs. to 40 lbs., and its 

 abundance was remarkable. It took the hook readily, and in an hour or two 

 a catch of 250 lbs. of tile-fish was not uncommon. As the lines used were the 

 same as for cod-fishing, no change of apparatus was necessary. It was then 

 believed that this new fish would singularly increase the food-supply of the North 



Other Groups. 



Atlantic Coast ; but just when American fishermen were beginning to apply their 

 skill to the catching of tile-fish off the New England coast, the Lopholatilus 

 disappeared. 



Two other subfamilies, distinguished by the lateral line being 

 interrupted or stopping short of the caudal fin, are severally typified 

 by the genera Pseudochrortiis and Notothenia ; the former subfamily having the 

 dorsal fin continuous, while in the latter it is divided. Pseadochromis and certain 

 other genera include tropical fish frequenting coral-reefs or coral-coasts, and 

 taking their name from their superficial resemblance to the members of a very 

 different family — the Chromididce. They differ from all the allied forms in having 

 a bony stay connecting the preopercular bone with the infraorbital ring. 



Soft-Spines and Frog-Fishes, — Families Malacanthidm and BatraciuLvE. 



Of these two unimportant families, the first is represented solely by the soft- 

 spines (Malacanthus), and differs from the preceding family by having only ten 



