CUVIER'S BODIAX. 225 



warm and temperate regions of the globe. The greater number of the species are marine, but 

 a few are found in the rivers. 



As an example of the typical genus, we will take the Kakaan {Pristipoma hasta), a species 

 found in the " Red Sea, along the east coast of Africa, thi-ough all the Indian seas to the 

 northern shores of Australia." 



In this prettily marked species, the dorsal fins are separated by a notch, rather variable in 

 depth, and the fourth dorsal spine is much elongated, being indeed equal to half the length of 

 the head. The second spine of the anal fin is also long and sharp. The coloring of the Kakaan 

 is seldom i^recisely the sam.e in any two individuals, but the body is always covered with a 

 great number of brown spots, arranged with some degree of regularity. Sometimes these spots 

 fall into horizontal lines^ so as to look at a little distance like a series of brown bars drawn 

 along the body, while in other specimens the spots are gathei-ed into vertical bands. There are 

 also several series of circular brown spots on both the dorsal fins. 



The Capeuna, or Fotjr-streaked Red-throat, is a remarkably pretty fish, and a good 

 example of the genus to which it belongs. 



The generic title of Hfemulon is given to these fishes on account of the bright ruddy color 

 of that part of the lower jaw which is concealed when the jaws are shut. The French call this 

 genus Rougegueule. The profile of their rather elongated head is thought to bear some 

 resemblance to that of a pig. The Capeuna is most beautifully colored, as wiU be seen when 

 the description is compared with the figure. The sj)ines of the dorsal fins are tolerably firm, 

 but cannot be termed strong or formidable, and the same may be said of the lengthened second 

 spine of the anal fin. The eye is large and fidl, and the tail is deeply forked. A rich brown 

 band runs along the whole of the body just above the dorsal line, and a corresponding band is 

 drawn immediately below it. Between the upper band and the spinous portion of the dorsal, 

 fin, a short brown streak is drawm, looking as if dashed hastily with one sweep of a brush, and 

 a still shorter stripe of the same color runs along each side of the head just above the eye. 

 From the eyes are drawn two wider stripes of rich golden-yellow, which pass beneath the 

 lateral line, and run to a considerable distance, the lower streak being continued as far as the 

 tail fin, and the upper reaching to the middle of the soft portion of the dorsal fin, where it 

 turns slightly upwards. 



OiTE of those remarkably colored species for which the warmer seas are so famous, and 

 whose vivid coloring and striking foi-ras put to shame the comparatively sober inhabitants of 

 the northern waters, is the Bodiax, or Cuvier's Bodiax, as it is generally called. 



What connection there may be between colors and caloric is one of the unsolved enigmas 

 of creation, and though it is most evident that such a connection exists, its principles and 

 even its results are at present shrouded in mystery. 



The tints which decorate the finny inhabitants of these tepid waters are brilliant heyond 

 all power of description, and the most glowing colors of the artist, though painted on a ground 

 of burnished gold, fail to convey more than a dim idea of the wondrous chromatic efl'ects pro- 

 duced by the living creatures. Even the patterns in which these colors are arranged are as 

 unexpected as they are efl'ective, and the art student would gain no slight knowledge of that 

 most difiicult science of color, were he to visit the tropical seas, and study the fishes as they 

 swim calmly in the crystalline water, amid the forests of waving seaweeds or branching corals. 



The harmony of the tints is not less remarkable than their brilliancy, for the brightest 

 and most glornng colors are flung boldly together in kaleidoscopic profusion, and, in defiance 

 of all the conventional rules by which artists like to govern themselves and others, are so 

 exquisitely harmonious that not a tint could be altered or removed without destroying the 

 entire chromatic eilect. Examples of some of these fish will be given in the course of the suc- 

 ceeding pages, and the reader ■will see that, even when laboring in this instance under the dis- 

 advantage of substituting plain black and white for their natural colors, they must be truly 

 the humming-birds of the ocean. ' ':'_.' 



Vol. m.-29. 



