342 TROPICAL AND SOUTHERN FISHES 



mouth horizontal. The deep-sea forms are characterised by the great development 

 of the mucus-bearing cavities in the head. 



The fishes commonly known as mullet-kings represent the genus 

 Apogon, and form a well-known group belonging to the family 

 Serranidce. These are small fishes, the great majority of which frequent coral- 

 reefs, and, like all fishes of similar habit, are brilliantly coloured and elaborately 

 marked, probably in order to accord with the bright colours of the coral-polyps 

 around and amid which they swim. The family Serranidce is a very large 

 one, including the members of the typical genus Serranus, of which several kinds 

 inhabit the Mediterranean, where they often inflict serious wounds on persons 

 bathing or swimming. The perch-like fishes of the genera Polyprion and 

 Mesoprion are likewise members' of the same family. 



Considerable interest attaches to the tile-fish (Lopholatilus 



Tile-Fish. . . . 



chamceleonticeps), a member of the family Pseudoehromididce, re- 

 markable not only for its brilliant coloration — perhaps unequalled by any other 

 non-tropical fish — but for its curious history. This species, which grows to a 

 considerable size, first made its appearance off No-Man's-Land, Massachusetts, in 

 1879, when a specimen was taken in deep water on a cod-line. Soon after it 

 could be taken in abundance with the same kind of apparatus, a catch of some 

 250 lb. of fish (ranging individually from 10 lb. to 40 lb.) in the course of a couple 

 of hours or less being not uncommon. This raised the hopes of fishermen, and in 

 1881 it was stated that there was every reason to believe that the tile-fish would 

 rank among the most important food-fishes of the United States. About the 

 same time, when the fishermen were getting into the swing of the fishing, the 

 tile-fish, owing to ice in the Atlantic, disappeared as suddenly as it came, and 

 it is only during the last twenty years that it has revisited the American Atlantic 

 coast, where it can now be taken at a depth of about seventy fathoms in the 

 warm waters of the Gulf Stream. 



Ombre and Among the numerous representatives of the family Scicenidcv, 



Drum-Fish. which are near relatives of the Serranidce, reference may be made 

 to the Mediterranean fish known as the ombre ( Unibrina cirrhosa), which ranges 

 so far southward as the Cape ; the genus being also represented by allied species 

 in the Indian Ocean. Another well-known member of the family is the drum- 

 fish (Pogonias chromis) of the Atlantic coast of North America, which takes its 

 name from the loud drumming noise it makes, possibly by clapping together the 

 pavement-like teeth in the gullet. This species grows to about four feet in length, 

 and may weigh nearly a hundredweight. The typical member of the family is, 

 however, the shadow-fish (Scicena aquila), which ranges from the coasts of Great 

 Britain to those of Australia, the genus to which this particular species belongs 

 having an extensive distribution in the Atlantic, Indian, and North Pacific Oceans. 

 The meagre, as the shadow-fish is frequently termed, is a strong and handsome 

 fish, also well known on account of the strange sounds it produces, which are of 

 the same general type as those of its cousin the drum-fish. 



Of special value as food-fishes are the long-fins of the genus 



Chilodactylus, which, with Haplodactylus and a few other genera, 



constitute the family Haplodactylidtv. Of the long-fins, which take their name 



