FISHES. 239 



An equally well known but far less valuable fish than the tautog is the species 

 variously called burgall, cunner, chogset, blue-fish, blue-perch, sea^perch, and nip- 

 per, — the Ctenolabrus adsj>ersus of most ichthyologists. Its teeth are numerous, 

 and in a moderately broad band ; the gill-covers are scaly, and the preopercle has a finely 

 serrate margin. The color varies, but it is mostly brownish-blue more or less suffused 

 with yellowish. It is to be ranged among the rather small fishes, for one of two jjounds 

 is almost unknown, and the largest that Mr. Goode had seen was a female ten and 

 a half inclies loiig, and weighing twelve ounces. Its habits are not unlike those of 

 its large relative, the tautog. 



Several otiier Labridas occur along, the southern and Pacific coasts, but they are 

 outliers of tropical forms. 



There are certain fishes found throughout the tropical seas, and generally known 

 to English-speaking peoples as parrot-fishes. A species of this group has an excep- 

 tional range, being found quite abundantly in the Mediterranean Sea, and it was the 

 most esteemed fish of the ancients, — Greeks as well as Romans, — by whom it was 

 called /S'cart^.s. This name, taken for a " genus " of ichthyology, has given name — 

 ScAEiD^ — to a family. The species are unusually uniform in their characters. All 

 have the body oblong, the scales large, and in about twenty-four cross rows, the 

 lateral line interrupted, the head compressed and subovate, nostrils double, the jaw- 

 bones prominent, naked, and overlaid, more or less, with imbricate teeth, the dorsal 

 with ten spines and nine rays, and the anal with two spines and nine rays. The upper 

 pharyngeal bones have been said to be consolidated into a single piece, but they are 

 really separate, although the teeth of the two interlock and would naturally give the 

 impression that the bones were double ; they have a sliding articulation with the 

 approximated branchihyals. Over one hundred species are known, and the favorite 

 haunts of most are the coral banks and groves of the tropics. On these they browse, 

 and their colors are gay and accommodated to their surroundings. The species gen- 

 erally attain a considerable size. 



The Scarus of the ancients, known as Scaro to the modern Greeks, Scarus or 

 Sparisoma scarus, is the most northern species of its family. Its diet is correspond- 

 ingly modified, for it feeds chiefly on Fucits, which it finely comminutes before passing 

 it into the stomach. It was a fish which poetic enthusiasm proclaimed to be such a 

 delicacy that the gods themselves were unwilling to reject even the excrements. Its 

 flesh is said to bs " tender, agreeable, sweet, easy of digestion, and quickly assimilated." 

 It was also the first fish, so far as written I'ecords, go which piscicultural art diffused. 

 We are told by Pliny that, in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, a Roman named 

 Optatus Elipertius had a lot of living fish brought from the Troad and released in the 

 Italian sea. There for five years they were protected, and when any were caught in 

 nets or otherwise they were delivered again to the sea. The result of such endeavor 

 and care was a subsequent abundance of the species about the region and an enlarged 

 range. 



Several species of Scaridse occur along the coast of Florida. 



Two other families belong to the same group or superfamily, Labroidea, as the 

 Labridae and Scaridse, but only their names — Odacid^ and SiPHOjroGNATHiDiB — need 

 be mentioned here. 



In the waters of California are found fishes of the ordinary form, but remarkable 

 for their viviparity, known scientifically as the Holcoj^otid^ or Embiotocidje. The 

 body is compressed, and generally oval, more or less resembling that of the white 



