BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON- WOODS. 217 



and very diflficult to distinguish, some 30 having been described. 

 Colour very plain, a silvery hue pervading the whole fish (Giinther). 



2. Apogon fucatus, Cantor. 



3. A. QUADRIFASCIATUS, Cuv. and Val. 



4. A. PoECiLOPTERUS, Cuv, and Val. All fishes of the percoid 

 family, representing a more highly developed form of the family 

 than A mbnssis, although of similarly small size. Their distribution 

 coincides very much with that of Ambassis, but they are chiefly 

 marine, very few of their species entering fresh water. They 

 belong to the kind of fishes which from their habit are termed 

 " Coral fishes," being found in the greatest abundance in the 

 neighbourhood of coral reefs, in company with Chaetodonts, Poma- 

 centridse, and others. Their colours are ornamental and highly 

 diversified, as is generally the case in coral fishes, the majority of 

 the species showing transverse or longitudinal bands or large spots, 

 and numerous other smaller markings which in the dead fish soon 

 disappear. Nearly one hundred species have been described, of 

 which a few onl}"- occur in the Atlantic, one extending northwards 

 into the Mediterranean (Giinther). 



5. Apistus carixatus, B1. & Schn. One of the family of Scor- 

 paenidse ; of the genus there are only two species from the Indian 

 Ocean. They are very small fishes, and like all the family exceed- 

 ingly thorny, but of interest on account of the prolongation of 

 their pectoral fins, by means of which they are said to be enabled 

 to take extraordinary flying leaps out of the water. 



6. MiNOUS MONODACTYLUS, Bl. & Schn. A small fish of anything 

 but prepossessing ap|iearance, with long pre-orbital spines, and a 

 strong sharp spine and three shorter and blunter ones on the 

 operculum. Greyish in color, fle.sh-colored along the abdomen, 

 tins marked with black, seldom exceeding four or five inches in 

 length. 



7. EciiiNEis naucrates, L. One of the sucking fish or 

 Reraoras, and probably the most common as well as one of the 

 largest ; for, though a slender fish, it is not uncommonly three feet 



