SCLERODERMS. 
631 
The Sunfish is seldom, if ever, used as food. All its 
various parasites and the slimy coat of its body render 
it repulsive to the ordinary fisherman; and the phos- 
phorescent light that radiates from it in the dark, has 
caused it to be suspected of injurious properties. Ac- 
cording to Risso", however, the liver is eaten in the 
north of Italy, though no great value is set upon it; 
Fam. B A L 
Scleroderms with hard scales or scale-like plates ( not co t 
or less fully developed) ivith spinous rays. Caudal fin 
This family is composed of fishes of far less sin- 
gular appearance than the preceding one. Its members 
are the least abnormal of the Plectognates; and their 
primeval characters are veiled in a great number of 
them by an undeniable beauty of colour — several of the 
Balistoids belong to the most handsomely coloured fishes 
of the modern period. The dermal covering, however, 
varies considerably not only between genus and genus, 
but also in several forms during the changes of growth. 
Sometimes the scales are extremely small and hardly 
visible to the naked eye; and the juvenile forms may 
be armed with spines, especially on the sides of the tail, 
which remind us of the equipment of the Acanthuri, 
but in many forms disappear with age. The dermal 
covering is not the only character that distinguishes 
these fishes from the other Scleroderms, the family of 
and in The Field (4th Feb., 1882) we are told how a 
person was cheated into the belief that he was eating 
the most delicious turtle soup, which was really made 
of the flesh of the Sunfish. The only economical value 
of the Sunfish lies in the oil into which the flesh and 
liver are boiled down, or the glue extracted from the 
bones and gristle. 
I S T 1 1) M. 
itinuous carapaces) and ivith two dorsal fins, the first ( more 
with 10 branched rays, and one simple ray at each margin. 
the Coffer-fishes ( Ostraciontidce ); they are also marked 
by the presence of an anterior, spinous-rayed dorsal fin 
— though this fin may sometimes consist of a single 
spinous ray — , by the compressed form of the body, 
and by their stronger, rodent-like jaw-teeth. 
The family belongs properly to the tropical seas — 
Jordan and Gilbert have estimated the number of the 
species at about 100 - — and may be divided into three 
subfamilies: the Triacanthince, furnished with ventral 
fins and with the jaw-bones only loosely united; the 
Monacantliince, without ventral fins, or with only one 
rudimentary ventral ray, with extremely small scales, 
with at most two rays in the first dorsal fin, the mem- 
brane of which is also rudimentary, and with only 6 
teeth in the lower jaw; and the Balistince. 
Subfamily BALISTIN M. 
Ventral fins wanting or represented merely by one fixed or mobile spine on the end of the pelvic bones, which are 
confluent. First dorsal fin with three spinous rays. Caudal fin rounded, or ivith S-shaped hind margin. Scales 
middle-sized or large, more or less plate-like. Upper jaw with 8 teeth in an outer row and 6 in a dense row 
within ( behind ) the former. Lower jaw with 8 teeth in a single row. Both the upper and the lower pharyn- 
geals furnished with teeth. Branchiostegal rays 6 or 5. Vertebrae 17. 
Linnasus called these fishes Filare b (Filers), a Swe- 
dish expression for the later name of Scleroderma. 
In English they are called File-fishes, from the rough 
front surface of the first ray of the anterior dorsal fin. 
Even by the external characters this subfamily is 
easily distinguisTied from the other Balistoids. The com- 
paratively large scales of the body separate it both from 
the Triacanthince and the Monacantliince ; in the struc- 
ture of the first dorsal fin it ranks between them; in 
the absence of ventral fins and in the rounding (at 
least at the middle of the margin) of the caudal fin it 
has characters in common with the Monacantliince , which 
have fewer jaw-teeth, and in which we find either one 
single row of teeth on the lower pharyngeals or no teeth 
at all on the pharyngeal bones. In a Melichthys (Ba- 
buniva from Ascension we find the lower pha- 
a Eur. Mer., tom. Ill, p. 174. 
b Mas. Ad. Frid., tom. I, p. 57. 
80 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
