47 



be profitably studied among the higher animal forms. The 

 series of Vertebrates will alone be considered, so that our 

 illustrated examples will be taken from fishes upwards to man. 

 It may be added that Muscular Activity is here distinguished 

 from pure strength and size of muscle. 



Fishes. 



The general form of fishes is graceful, though there are 

 notable exceptions, which will be referred to. The pointed 

 snout, tapering backwards to the head, from which the body 

 again tapers gracefully to the tail, affords a generally elegant 

 outline, and a form well calculated to present the minimum of 

 resistance to the water. 



The Teleostean, or bony-skeletoned fishes, present the 

 greatest number of graceful forms, and among these there are 

 many which at once occur to our minds, such as the Perch 

 family, Bass, Bream, Carp, Roach, Tench, Herrings, Mackerel, 

 Grayling, Gudgeon, Salmon, Trout, Minnow, Sword Fishes, 

 Sticklebacks. These are all elegant in general form, with 

 symmetry of head, body and fins, and are homocercal, i.e., 

 possess symmetrical tails, and are well-known for the activity of 

 their movements. Of all these, perhaps the most active and 

 vivacious and graceful, are the Sticklebacks. 



The groups of Fishes which are either far less graceful or 

 decidedly clumsy, in their form, are the Pleuronectidse or Flat 

 Fishes, such as Turbot, Sole, Flounders, Plaice, with their 

 flattened bodies, unsymmetrical head, and eyes both on one side 

 of the head. These fishes, as a rule, inhabit the sandy bottoms 

 of the seas, and depend more on their protective colouration for 

 safety than for any activity of habit. Here is seen the reverse 

 of the former group, for we have sluggishness of life and habit, 

 associated with comparative ugliness and asymmetry. Other 

 Flat Fishes are the Rays and Skates, and these also are com- 

 paratively sluggish in habit, and anything but elegant in form. 

 They also depend for safety largely upon colouration, though 

 certain fish, such as the Torpedo or Electric Ray, have a formid- 

 able weapon in the electric apparatus with which it is able to 

 stun or kill an adversary. The Ganoid or Armoured Fishes, 

 which are of ancient origin among their class, are less elegant 

 in form than most of those in our first group, and possess an 

 asymmetrical tail, and are known as heterocercal ; as a group, 



