THE SC03fBERID^ IN GENERAL. 33 



The ScomberidiB, or mackerel, from having the smallest 

 scales in the whole tribe, of course stand at the head of 

 the Microleptes ; -while the sub-typical Zeidce, on being 

 compared with the sub-typical Macroleptes (which are 

 the ChcEtodonidce), are so strikingly alike, on a super- 

 ficial view, that writers of the first eminence, before 

 Cuvier, were perpetually confounding them ; many of 

 their shapes, in fact, are so much the same, that their 

 resemblance cannot possibly be stronger, if each is to 

 preserve its characteristic organisation. The Echeneidre, 

 again, find their perfect representation among the Blen- 

 NiDES, or blennies and gobies, since the funnel-shaped 

 ventrals of the latter possess the same adhesive power 

 as do the plates upon the head of the remora ; these, 

 be it observed, being the only sucking groups in their 

 respective tribes. The Centriscidm find their exact 

 prototypes in the gurnards or Canthileptes, several of 

 which are covered by the same sort of rough scales or 

 plates : while the CoryphcenidcE, and the Gymnetes or 

 riband-fish, are so alike, that we were for a long time 

 uncertain as to the exact point where they blend into 

 each other. The whole of these families form one im- 

 mense circular group, to the illustration of which, 

 although full of interest, we can only devote a few pages. 

 (32.) The ScoMBERiD^, typically so called, contain 

 the largest and the most highly flavoured of the whole 

 tribe. Their body is always more lengthened than 

 oval : their scales are very small, often imperceptible ; 

 and, notwithstanding the diversity of their structure, 

 they all present, as now arranged, the universal cha- 

 racter of being without any detached spines on their 

 backs : they are thus distinctly separated from the 

 next family, where this character is almost universal. 

 The typical divisions have two dorsal fins, the second 

 of which, as well as the anal, is followed by numerous 

 finlets, which extend at equal distances, to the tail ; they 



Coleoptera among the insects, which is the most aberrant of the Ptilota, 

 and yet is perhaps the most numerous of all its orders. 



VOL. II. D 



