PRISTIPOMA — RED MULLETS — SCALY-FINNED GROUI 343 



from the great production of the pectoral fins, most of the numerous species 



inhabit the South Pacific. In all the members of the family the lower rays of 



the pectoral fins are thick and undivided, and are apparently employed as organs 



of touch. 



Another large srroup of tropical fishes of the perch section is 

 Pristipoma. . to r r . . 



formed by the numerous species included in the genus Pristipoma, 



which typifies a family containing several other genera. These fishes, as a rule, 



are dull in colour and medium in size. 



Omitting mention of the great family of sea-breams (Sparidai) 

 Red Mullets. . . . . 



of which there are some two hundred species, with numerous genera, 



distributed over nearly all seas, we come to the nearly related family of red mullets, 



or Mugilidce. These fishes are chiefly characteristic of temperate and tropical 



seas, but are more abundant in the Eastern than in the Western Hemisphere. They 



feed mainly on crustaceans, to which they owe their brilliant red colouring, and 



have long been in high repute for the table. In the common red mullet (Midlus 



barbatus), the favourite fish of the old Roman epicures, the colour is uniformly red 



and the profile vertical ; the range of the species extending from Scandinavia to 



the Canaries. In the striped mullet (M. surmuletus), on the other hand, the profile 



of the head is usually oblique, and the sides of the body are longitudinally striped 



with yellow. This fish, which may or may not be entitled to specific rank, is 



moderately common in summer off the coasts of the south and west of England, to 



which the red mullet is only an occasional visitor. To an allied family, Capraidce, 



belongs the well-known boar-fish (Capros aper) of the Mediterranean and North 



Atlantic, remarkable for the hair-like bristles on its scales. 



scaly-Finned Special interest, on account of the brilliant colouring and striking 



Group. ornamentation of its members, attaches to the group of scaly-finned 



fishes forming the family Ghcetodontidce, which are easily recognised by the deep 



form of the body and the extension of the scaling on to the vertical fins. These 



fishes are for the most part characteristic of the tropical seas in the vicinity of 



coral-reefs, and are all more or less carnivorous in habit. Among them, the species 



known as Chelmo rostratus is noticeable on account of the prolongation of the 



muzzle into a short tube. In colour this fish is white barred with four dark stripes 



margined with brown and white ; the fleshy portion of the dorsal fin bearing a 



number of round, black-edged white spots. From its tube-like beak, this fish was 



supposed to have the power of squirting drops of water on insects on shore ; but 



as it is a salt-water species, it is highly improbable that it eats insects at all, and it 



seems most likely that its alleged squirting powers are due to its having been 



confounded with the Indo-Malay archer-fish (Toxotes jaculator), referred to in the 



section on the Australian fauna. 



The warmer regions of the Indian and Pacific Oceans are the home of a 



strikingly coloured species known as the bristle-fish (Chcetodon setifer), the typical 



representative of the whole family, and a member of a large and widely distributed 



group. It derives its name from the elongation of the fifth ray of the dorsal fin. 



To the same family also belongs the gorgeously coloured emperor-fish (Holacanthus 



imperator), resplendent with longitudinal stripes of gold upon an azure ground. 



This fish is an Indian member of a large tropical group, all of which are highly 



