rilARYNGOGNATIIS.- 



-FISHES.- 



-Ejibiotocids. 



119 



oil our coasts, but none are in much request for the 

 table. They abound on the Cornish shores, and at 

 some seasons are shipped in quantities for consumption 

 by the poor of the eastern districts. As they are com- 

 mon fish in the Mediterranean, tliey must have been 

 well known to the ancients ; but, from the want of 

 precise descriptions, few of the species named by the 

 liomans can be recognized with any degree of certainty, 

 thougli some of the generic names have been bor- 

 rowed from ancient writers. The Turdits and Mcrula 

 ai'o supposed to have been Lnhri. Some Crenilahri 

 are so brilliant that they are called in Rome at the 

 present time Piipaffdli, or Parrakeots. Our fishermen, 

 probably from their gay dress, also name several of the 

 family Maids or Wives ; sometimes Old Wives. The 

 Tautog or Black-fisli of New-York {Tautoga nigra) 

 is much esteemed, and fetches a high price in the 

 market. It is fed and f;itted in preserves. During 

 the winter it refuses to eat, but regains its appetite as 

 the weather becomes warmer in the spring. Later in 

 the season the Tautog procures its food so easily that 

 it does not take the fishermen's hook readily. These 

 habits are expressed by the following lines :^ 



" When chestnut lefives are as bij^ as thumb-nail, 

 Then bite Black-iish without fail ; 

 But when chestnut leaves are as long as a span, 

 Then catch Black-fish if you can." 



The fishing for Black-fish is, according to Mitchill 

 from whofn those particulars are borrowed, a favourite 

 Now York pastime. 



The Epihuhis insidUitor has very protractile jaws, 

 which it suddenly thrusts out to seize any unwary 

 insect that comes within their reach. The slyness 

 with which it preys on the insect race has obtained for 

 it from the Dutch of the Moluccas the appellation of 

 Dcdricger, or " the deceiver," while the Malays call it 

 Big-mouth. 



The term Scarus is considered by Cuvier to be cor- 

 rectly used in modern ichthyology to designate the 

 genus to which the celebrated Scurtis of the ancients 

 belonged. This fish was said to utter sounds, to have 

 great skill in avoiding nets, and if any of its associates 

 were inclosed, knew how to deliver them by gnaw- 

 ing the meshes. Aristotle adduces some reasons for 

 iielieving that the Scarus ruminates, and that it is 

 the only fish that does so. Pliny repeats tlie saying 

 without hesitation, and adds that therefore it is the 

 chief of fishes; and Ovid, Oppian, and others, have 

 sung its praises in verse. Moreover, Seleucus asserts 

 it to be the only fish that ever sleeps; and ^-Elian says 

 that it is of all fishes the most strongly inflamed with 

 love of its kind. Pliny assigns to it the Carpathian 

 sea as its proper habituation, affirming that voluntaril}' 

 it never passes the southern cape of the Troad; and 



Horace speaks of it as being driven into the Adriatic 

 only by winter storms. According to Colnmella, it 

 had not even at a later time passed to the westward of 

 Faro di Messina. In the days of the Emperor Claudius, 

 however, Optatus Elipertius brouglit some of these fish 

 from the Troad, and turned them loose near the moutli 

 of the Tiber. During five years all tliat were taken 

 in nets were returned to tlie sea, after v?hich they 

 became abundant on the Italian shores. The pains 

 that Elipertius took to bring a supply of this fish within 

 reach of the Roman epicures, was justified by the great 

 value sot upon it. Martial speaks of the intestinal fat 

 of a sea-fed Scarus as most excellent ; and Xenocrates 

 tells us that the viscera of a Scarus newly brought from 

 the sea, and not kept in a vivarium, are most agreeable. 

 The liver was in high estimation, and formed, along 

 with the melts of murries, the brains of peacocks and 

 pheasants, and the tongues of flamingoes, the dish 

 named by Vitellius, " the shield of Minerva." So care- 

 ful were Roman dinner-givers to have this fish per- 

 fectly fresh, that, according to Petronius, the custom 

 was to present it alive to the guests before it was con- 

 signed to the cook. Its flesh was considered to be 

 tender, savoury, and easy of digestion. The Scarus 

 Crclensis is even in the present day esteemed as a 

 most delicate fish by the inhabitants of Asia Minor; 

 but it is said to bo taken with difficulty, and only by 

 highly-skiUed fishermen. 



F.\MiLY v.— EMBIOTOCIDS. 



The Eiuhiotocidce of Agassiz, or Ilolconoti, are of a 

 compressed oval shape, are clothed with middle-sized 

 cycloid scales, and their opercular pieces are witliout 

 spines or serratures. The branchiostegals are six in 

 number, the lips are moderately thick, and the orifice 

 of the mouth is formed above by the premaxillaries — 

 the maxillaries being excluded. Both these bones are 

 somewhat protractile, and support teeth, as do also the 

 mandible and pharyngeals — the vomer and palatines 

 being smooth. A stripe of integuments along the base 

 of the dorsal fin on each side is destitute of scales. 

 The fronts of the dorsal and anal are supported by 

 spines, and there is a spine and five branching rays 

 in the venlrals. The family name has reference to 

 the development of the young in a manner which 

 Agassiz considers to be analogous to that of the 

 kangaroos. 



Tlie gener.a arc — Emhiotoca ; UoIcMiotus (Agass. in Troscli. 

 Archiv. fiir Naturg., 18.')4, and Sillini. Jonrn. of Sc, 18.53); 

 Plianerodiyji (Girard); Dainalic/tllii/s (Gircinl) ; Abcona (Girard); 

 Rnchochilus (Girard) ; Ilet/stcrocarpus (Gii'ard) ; Eimichthys 

 (Gii"ard); and Amphlstichits, 



Order IV.-ACANTnOPTERES. 



MiJLLKR's Acanllioj^lcri include the greater part of the 

 Acanthoptcrygians of Linn;cus (certain I'baryngo- 

 gnaths and some other groups of soft-finned fishes 



being excluded). In this order the internal skeleton 

 is indurated, but none of them, except the Tunnies, 

 develop true bone-corpuscles in their hard parts — the 



