22 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



of the fish adhering to the sides, or to the hand. 

 This perfectly accords with the result of our own 

 observations upon a great number procured on the 

 coasts of Sicily, where this genus abounds. Never- 

 theless there can be no doubt of these fins being 

 formed for suction ; and the probabiUty seems to be 

 that they are only used in stormy w^eather, when the 

 water is violently agitated. After such commotions of 

 the sea, we have frequently picked up on the beach 

 many small fishes seldom seen on other occasions ; but, 

 although the gobies are nearly all very small, and often 

 delicate, we never remember to have found a single 

 specimen cast up upon the beach. The true suckers, 

 however, forming the genus Cyclopterus, possess the 

 faculty of adhesion in an extraordinary degree. On 

 the breast and belly are two circular concave disks : 

 one of these is formed by the extension of the pectoral 

 fins under the breast; the other by the union of the 

 ventral fins. The tenacity with which these fishes 

 adhere, upon being captured, to the first object which 

 comes in their way, is very remarkable. Their form 

 is repulsive ; and they fasten themselves so firmly upon 

 the hand, that, to inexperienced persons, an involuntary 

 feeling of dread arises in the mind, lest they should 

 be venomous. If loosened from the hand and placed 

 in a vessel of water, they immediately swim with a 

 quick undulating motion, and affix themselves to the 

 sides. Several species of these fish occur on the 

 British coast ; and others, quite different, are not un- 

 common in the Mediterranean. The most extraordinary 

 ventral fins are seen in some of the Gymnetes, or riband- 

 fish, where the rays sometimes resemble oars, being 

 spatulate or broad at the tip. This form is peculiar to the 

 genus Gymnetrus ; but in that of Tracliypterus (Gouan) 

 the rays are even still longer, and appear to consist 

 of slender flexible filaments. 



(25.) The DORSAL fin, with the anal and caudal, are 

 the three members for progression, of which nothing 

 analogous can be traced among quadrupeds and birds ; 



