HELOCENTBIN^. 



21 



Leaving these^ we pass on to the three aberrant sub- 

 families of the perchesj viz. the Percophiruje, the Holo- 

 centrince, and the HelotincB, in which few species^ com- 

 paratively, are contained. The first are remarkable for 

 their elongated shape, and for having, unlike all the 

 other perches, the ventral fins placed almost always be- 

 fore the pectorals. In their pointed head and thickened 



lips (^fig. 1.) they so much 

 resemble the LabridiB, that 

 we are left in no doubt as 

 to the means by which that 

 charming family is con- 

 nected to the perches. In 

 rhe large, vertically cleft 

 mouth of Priacanthus we 

 have a repetition of the cMronectiform type — while by 

 Centropristis we immediately enter into the next sub- 

 family. 



(20.) The Holocentrin<s, or mailed-perches, are a 

 small but most beautiful group of fishes ; the greater 

 number of the species, and most of the typical, being of 

 different shades of red, from a splendid crimson to a 

 golden yellow. Many types scattered in other gTOups 

 we have here brought together, and we suspect that se- 

 veral others naturally belong to this division. They are 

 all covered with hard and generally serrated scales ; v/hiie, 

 in the pre-eminent types (as Trachichthys, Monocenirus. 

 and Hoplostethus) , the body is as completely mailed as in 

 the loricated silures (^LoricarincB). The true Anthias of 

 the ancients (^Serranus Anthias Cuv.) connects these 

 fishes with Centropristis; while that most singular little 

 fish, the Oriosoma of Cuvier, shows us the counterpart 

 of Huro, Grystes, and all the other oblique-mouthed 

 chironectiform types. Beryx, with its enormous eyes, 

 finds its prototype in Apogon; so that we have precisely 

 the same circular succession, and the same modified forms, 

 as in the Percince and the Serranince. Nearly all these 

 are fishes of tropical climates, and not even one can be 



c 3 



