Scientific Intelligence.— Zoology. 861 
besides, trace the limits or the parallels which certain fishes af- 
fect. At the head of the species which roam at large through 
the solitudes of the ocean, they place the shark, giving new ac- 
counts of it, foreign to the popular histories, to which certain 
navigators have given their assent. They think, contrary to 
the opinion of M. Noel de la Moriniere, that the Squalus Car - 
charias inhabits every sea that they have visited. Speaking of 
the Coryphenes and Scombri, they exhibit to us the swarms of 
these voracious fishes plowing the seas in all directions, without 
fixed limits. Then, passing to the equatorial zones, they paint 
the brilliancy and richness of colouring which nature has im- 
parted to the species which live in the midst of the coral-reefs, 
where they rival, in the vivacity and the delicate blending of their 
tints, the purest and most brilliant productions of the vegetable 
kingdom. Of this kind are the Ch&todons , Glyphisodons , Po- 
macentri , Acanthuri , &c. On the other hand, in the places 
where the waves dash with fury upon the rocky shores, there 
live by preference, the tribe of the Batistes , the Labroides , the 
Somphoses , Diacopi , Scari , and Caranges. But in all, accord- 
ing to our authors, gold and silver mingle their hues with the 
prismatic tints ; everywhere in the torrid zone, the same pheno- 
menon manifests itself. They also affirm, that the descriptions 
of Renard, which were so long supposed to be the products 
of imagination rather than the result of actual existence, are 
perfectly correct with regard to the marvellous reflections of co- 
lour ; and that if there be errors in the case, they exist in the 
representation of the forms. But, in proportion as we recede 
from the zone, which is constantly warmed by torrents of heat, 
the rich livery of certain beings disappears, and gives place to 
duller tints. It is chiefly the fishes of New Holland, Port- Jack- 
son, the Cape of Good Hope, the Rio-de-la-Plata, that are ad- 
duced as examples, although this modification of life experien- 
ces numerous exceptions even in our own countries. Rio Janeiro, 
placed under the tropic, forms an exception to this rule however, 
and the most common fishes have dull colours, and are in gene- 
ral Rays, and several species of the family of Sabnones , such as 
the Cur r mates, Hydrocynes , &c. The Volcanic Sandwich 
Islands are chiefly peopled with Labroids , which again appear 
not to have adopted the coasts of the Moluccas and Marian 
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