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TROPICAL AND SOUTHERN FISHES 



zones of the'Atlantic and the Indo-Malay seas. When adult, the pectoral fins are 

 so prolonged as to enable these fishes to take nights in the air in the fashion of the 

 true flying-fishes, although they are not prolonged to such distances, 

 star Gazers. Another section of spiny-finned fishes includes the curious star- 



gazers, forming the family Uranoscopidce, and closely related to the 

 well-known weevers, or Trachinidce. These fishes are specially characterised by 

 the scales being either small and arranged in oblique bands or absent. The star- 

 gazers are represented by about a dozen species, of which all but Uranoscopus 



BANKS S OAE-FISH. 



scaber of the Mediterranean inhabit the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans. These 

 fishes take their name from the position of the eyes on the upper surface of the 

 head, where they can be raised or depressed according to circumstances. They 

 obtain their food by lurking among stones and luring prey within reach of their 

 capacious mouths by means of the movements of a long filament situated below 

 and in front of the tongue. North America is the home of certain star-gazers 

 (Astroscopus), in which, as in the typical members of the family, the eyes are 

 placed near the middle of the large, flat head in such a position that the line of 

 vision is directed almost immediately upwards. In correlation with this peculiarity 

 is the upward direction of the large and strongly armed mouth, which is likewise 

 placed entirely on the upper surface of the head. Obviously such a fish cannot 



