248 LOWER VERTEBRATES. 



found and picked up, to be taken home for a wonder, as it really is. Thus have at 

 least three specimens found their way into museums, — one being in the United States 

 National Museum, — and in each the fish in the stomach has been about twice as long, 

 and stouter in proportion, than the swallower — six to twelve times bulkier! Its true 

 habitat seems to be at a depth of about 1,500 fathoms. 



Now there comes up for consideration a long and composite series of fishes, which 

 commences fairly enough with forms like ordinary fishes, — the Sebastines, — so 

 much so that they have been called perch, on account of their likeness to the sea- 

 perches. They are clean-looking, compactly built fishes, with scales as in the perches. 

 But even closely allied to them are forms — the Scorpsenines — that show the ten- 

 dency of some of the divergent members of the series. There are, however, various 

 types which diverge in different directions, and at one extreme are to be found species 

 with coats of mail composed of large plates, and at another fishes with the body almost 

 shapeless, and the naked skin so loose that they seem enclosed in a bag. All have 

 the lower rays of the pectoral fins simple and more or less thickened and enlarged, 

 and each cheek is crossed by a ' stay ' or enlarged suborbital bone, which extends from 

 the eye to the inner margin of the preopercle. But there are some fishes which do 

 not have the armed cheeks, although the lower pectoral rays are simple and enlarged. 

 Such are the Cirrhitidae. 



The CiKEHiTiD^ are compressed oval fishes, with smooth scales end the spinous 

 portion of the dorsal long. The typical species are inhabitants of the tropical seas, 

 although not of the West Indian. Others, however, constituting the subfamilies 

 Chilodactylinse and Chironeminse, are denizens of the temperate seas, chiefly of 

 the southern hemisphere, although a few occur along the Asiatic coast. Several of 

 the species are important economical fishes, and are among the most prized of the 

 Australian and New Zealand markets. The trumpeter (Xatris hecateia), for ex'am- 

 ple, is thought to be " the best flavored of any " of the New Zealand fishes. 



The following have the cheeks armed, and for that reason were gi-ouped together 

 by Cuvier as the fishes with mailed cheeks, and have been also called Loricati, and b}' 

 various other names of like import. 



The ScOEP^NiD^ are the least unlike ordinary fishes. The body is compressed, 

 and covered with small or moderate scales ; the head is more or less armed with ridges 

 or spines above, and the operculum has about five flat spines along the margin. The 

 sjjinous portion of the dorsal has usually ten to twelve (sometimes fifteen) spines ; 

 the anal has three spines. The pectorals are moderately procurrent at the base ; and 

 the ventrals are thoracic, sometimes appreciably behind the bases of the pectorals, and 

 have generally a spine and five rays. Many are the species, and some coincidences are 

 noteworthy. The tropical species have ten abdominal and fourteen vertebrsg; 

 numerous si^ecies along the western coast of the United States have twelve abdominal 

 and fifteen caudal vertebrae ; and a couple of species, constituting the genus Sebastes, 

 confined to the cold waters of the northern Atlantic, have twelve abdominal and nine- 

 teen caudal vertebrae. Many, at least, of the spocdes are ovo-viviparous. One of the 

 most notable features of the Pacific coast of northern America is the great number of 

 representatives of this family living at various depths. About thirty species have been 

 made known, and among them are some of the most important of the economical fishes 

 of the country. According to Prof. Jordan, " all of them are excellent food fishes, 

 and scarcely a boat returns frqm any kind of fishing in which these fishes do not form 

 a conspicuous part of the catch." They are chiefly known as rock-fish and rock-cod. 



