664 Pareioplite, or Mailed-cheek Fishes 
with a different and more perfect armature. The many species 
belong chiefly to the North Pacific, a few in the Atlantic and on 
the coast of Patagonia. Some are found in considerable depth of 
water. All are too small to have value as food and some have 
Fie. 573.—Agonoid-fish, Pallastna barbata (Steindachner). Port Mulgrave, Alaska 
most fantastic forms. Only a few of the most prominent need 
be noticed. The largest and most peculiar species is Percis 
japonicus of the Kurile Islands. Still more fantastic is-the 
Japanese Dractscus sacht with sail-like dorsal and anal. Agonus 
cataphractus, the sea-poacher, is the only European species. 
Podothecus actpenserinus, the alligator-fish, is the commonest 
species of the North Pacific. Pallastna barbata is as slender as 
Fie. 574.—Aspidophoroides monopterygius (Bloch). Halifax. 
a pipefish, with a short beard at the chin. Aspidophoroides 
monopterygius of the Atlantic and other similar species of the 
Pacific lack the spinous dorsal fin. 
No fossil Agonide@ are known. 
The Lump-suckers: Cyclopteride.— The lump-suckers, Cyciop- 
teride, are structurally very similar to the Cottide, but of very 
different habit, the body being clumsy and the movements 
very slow. The ventral fins are united to form a sucking disk 
by which these sluggish fishes hold fast to rocks. The skeleton 
is feebly ossified, the spinous dorsal fin wholly or partly lost, 
the skin smooth or covered with bony warts. The slender 
subortal stay indicates the relation of these fishes with the 
Cottide. The species are chiefly Arctic, the common lump- 
fish or ‘cock and hen paddle,” Cyclopterus lumpus, abounding 
on both shores of the North Atlantic. It reaches a length of 
twenty inches, spawning in eel-grass where the male is left to 
