GHjEiODONID^^ AND LABRIN^. 



25 



(24.) The true ChcBtodonincB, or typical chaetodons 

 constitute the perfection of the whole. They are 

 short, broad, and almost orbicular fishes, much com- 

 pressed, with a small head^ and a still smaller mouth : 

 the teeth are excessively fine, and resemble slender 

 bristles, from whence their name has been derived : the 

 dorsal fin is always single ; and both that and the anal is 

 always covered, more or less, with small scales, con- 

 tinued in a regular series from those on the body. In 

 many of the sub-genera, particularly such as are highly 

 typical, these scales extend almost to the edge of the 

 fin, but they generally reach to one half, or two thirds, 

 of its breadth. Of the beauty of these fishes, no pen 

 or pencil can give an adequate idea : the body is gene- 

 rally of a silvery white, tinged with rose or yellow, 

 upon which are delicate lines of vivid colours, relieved 

 by ocellated spots and dark bands across the body and 

 fins : they are particularly numerous in the Indian and 

 Pacific Oceans, keeping near the shore or coral reefs ; 

 but not one is found so far north as the Mediterranean. 

 Some are well known to possess the extraordinary 

 power of shooting at insects with a drop of water 

 ejected suddenly from their mouth, — a circumstance 

 which appears altogether unique in this, or, indeed, in 

 any other class of anim.als : some of the aberrant forms^ 

 again, present a most singular elongation of the ventral 

 fins, and even of the dorsal and anal, so as to render 

 them complete prototypes of the Zeince^ or Dories in 

 the tribe of Scomberidce, or mackerels. , 



