fistularoidejE. 107 



brilliancy of their colours. They are very generally distributed, being found in all 

 parts of the ocean, and also in lakes and rivers. Upwards of forty species exist in 

 the European seas, chiefly in the Mediterranean, though there are several in the 

 North Sea. The following occur on the coast of the United States : Labrus 

 Americanus (L. tautoga, Mitch.), Cheilinus radiatus, Lachnolaimus suillus, 

 Crenilabrus burgall {L. chogset, Mitch.), Xirichthys psittacus, X. lineatus, and 

 some others. 



Fabricius, while sailing along the Greenland coast, saw a fish of a shining 

 blue colour swim past. The Greenlanders named it Keblernak, and Fabricius 

 supposes that it may have been the Labrus exoletus of Linneeus, a North Sea fish, 

 which is a Crenilabrus in Cuvier's system, and is remarkable for having five spines 

 in its anal fin. The sub-genus Crenilabrus is distinguished from the true labri 

 solely by having a denticulated preoperculum. Its numerous species were included 

 by Bloch in his genus Lutjanus. 



FISTULAROIDE.E.— LES BOUCHES EN FLUTE. 



This family is characterised by a long tubular muzzle, formed of the prolonged 

 ethmoid, vomer, preopercular, interopercular, pterygoid, and tympanitic bones, at 

 the extremity of which is the mouth, composed as usual of the palate bones, inter- 

 maxillaries, labials, and lower jaw. The intestinal canal is either straight and 

 furnished with two caecal appendages, or destitute of ceeca, and twice or thrice 

 doubled upon itself. The air-bladder is in some extremely small, in others of a 

 moderate size, or even very large. The gill-rays are six or seven in number, or 

 only two or three, and very slender. The scales are of a moderate size or small, or 

 even so minute as to be invisible. The forepart of the back is more or less per- 

 fectly protected by osseous or scaly plates, which, in some instances, exist also on 

 the flanks. The dorsal is either single and supported, like the anal to which it is 

 opposed, mostly by simple rays, or it is preceded by free spines, or there are two 

 dorsals, the soft one being generally far back. There are two generic groups, Fis- 

 tularia, in which the body is cylindrical, and Centriscus, in which it is compressed 

 and oval. 



Fistularia tabaccaria frequents the coast of the United States, F. serrata the 

 West Indies and sea of Brazil, Centriscus scolopax inhabits the Mediterranean. 

 Most of the others belong to the Indian Ocean. 



p 2 



