THE CHIRONECTIDjE, OR FROG-FISHES. 201 



a wide range of vision. One of the most striking cha- 

 racters of the Plectognathes is the deficiency of true 

 scales and teeth ; the latter is consequently more appa- 

 rent in the Diodonidce than in any other, although, in 

 several other respects it is aberrant. 



(179-) Again, some very singular coincidences will 

 arise by comparing this family with the primary groups 

 of the quadrupeds and birds, but the analogical rela- 

 tions will, of course, be very remote. The Diodonidce, 

 for instance, are the most aberrant of the whole circle, — 

 a station likewise held by the porcupines, the hedge- 

 hogs, and the spined rats, in their own proper circles 

 among quadrupeds : hence we immediately see one of 

 the analogical reasons, so to speak, of Diodon having 

 the longest spines of all the cheloniform divisions ; for, 

 had it been otherwise, there would, apparently, be want- 

 ing some one character by which all these diversified 

 groups would be analogically related. But into these 

 details it is needless to enter, seeing that, if we have not 

 erred in the foregoing table, all other analogies, near or 

 remote, will follow as a matter of course. We leave 

 the presumed analogy of the Tetraodince and the Carti- 

 lagines for future determination. When we consider that 

 little or nothing is known of the manners of these fishes, 

 and that, if the peculiar form of the eye in the Cepha- 

 lincs had not been discovered, nothing would have been 

 left to show their analogy to the Syngnathidce, we need 

 not be sceptical on this point of our comparison : if 

 nothing was left to be discovered, our knowledge of 

 nature would be perfect. 



(180.) The second family we consider to be repre- 

 sented by the Chiron ectidje, or frog-fishes, at present 

 comprised under one genus ; yet the species and forms 

 are so few, that its internal relations cannot be made 

 out. The characters of this group are so different from 

 the Acanthopteryges, where Cuvier has placed it, that we 

 cannot discover one solitary character they possess in 

 common. The skeleton of Chironectes, instead of being 

 osseous, is, as M. Cuvier admits, semi-cartilaginous : the 



