412 



FISHES. 



twenty -five lbs.), and are easily caught in numbers. At 

 the Cape of Good Hope they are very abundant, and pre- 

 served in large quantities for export. 



Mendosoma from the coast of ChUi, and Nemadactylus 

 from Tasmania, are allied genera. 



Latris. — Dorsal fin deeply notched ; the spinous portion with 

 seventeen spines ; anal fin many-rayed. None of the simple 

 pectoral rays passes the margin of the fin. Teeth villiform ; no 

 canines. Prseoperculum minutely serrated. Scales small. 



Two species only are known from Tasmania and New 

 Zealand, which belong to the most important food-fishes of 

 the Southern Hemisphere. Latris Tiecateia or the "Trumpeter," 

 ranges from sixty to thirty lbs. in weight, and is con- 

 sidered by the colonists the best flavoured of any of the fishes 

 of South Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and con- 

 sumed smoked as well as fresh. The second species, Latris 

 ciliaris, is smaller, scarcely attaining a weight of twenty 

 lbs., but more abundant; it is confined to the coast of 

 New Zealand. 



Seventh Family — ScoKPiENiDjs. 

 Body ohlong, more or less compressed, covered with ordirwury 

 scales, or naked. Cleft of the mouth lateral or suhvei'tical. 



Dentition feeble, con- 

 sisting of villiform 

 teeth; and generally 

 witliout canines. Some 

 hones of the head 

 armed, especially the 

 angle of the prceoper- 

 cidum, its armature 

 Fig. 178.— Skull of Scorpcena percoides ; so. Sub- receiving additional 

 orbital ring ; pr, Praeoperculum ; st, Bony stay, support Iv a lonv Stay, 

 connecting the suborbital with the pneoperoulum. -^ •^ f 



connecting it with the 

 infraorbital ring. The spinous portion of the dorsal fn equally 



