CUVIER’S BOD IAN. 
225 
warm and temperate regions of the globe. The greater number of the species are marine, but 
a few are found in the rivers. 
As an example of the typical genus, we will take the Kakaan (. Pristipoma hasta), a species 
found in the “Red Sea, along the east coast of Africa, through all the Indian seas to the 
northern shores of Australia.” 
In this prettily marked species, the dorsal fins are separated by a notch, rather variable in 
depth, and the fourth dorsal spine is much elongated, being indeed equal to half the length of 
the head. The second spine of the anal fin is also long and sharp. The coloring of the Kakaan 
is seldom precisely the same in any two individuals, but the body is always covered with a 
great number of brown spots, arranged with some degree of regularity. Sometimes these spots 
fall into horizontal lines, so as to look at a little distance like a series of brown bars drawn 
along the body, while in other specimens the spots are gathered into vertical bands. There are 
also several series of circular brown spots on both the dorsal fins. 
The Capeuha, or Four-streaked Red-tiiroat, is a remarkably pretty fish, and a good 
example of the genus to which it belongs. 
The generic title of Hsemulon is given to these fishes on account of the bright ruddy color 
of that part of the lower jaw which is concealed when the jaws are shut. The French call this 
genus Rougegueule. The profile of their rather elongated head is thought to bear some 
resemblance to that of a pig. The Capeuna is most beautifully colored, as will be seen when 
the description is compared with the figure. The spines of the dorsal fins are tolerably firm, 
but cannot be termed strong or formidable, and the same may be said of the lengthened second 
spine of the anal fin. The eye is large and full, and the tail is deeply forked. A rich brown 
band runs along the whole of the body just above the dorsal line, and a corresponding band is 
drawn immediately below it. Between the upper band and the spinous portion of the dorsal 
fin, a short brown streak is drawn, looking as if dashed hastily with one sweep of a brush, and 
a still shorter stripe of the same color runs along each side of the head just above the eye. 
From the eyes are drawn two wider stripes of rich golden-yellow, which pass beneath the 
lateral line, and run to a considerable distance, the lower streak being continued as far as the 
tail fin, and the upper reaching to the middle of the soft portion of the dorsal fin, where it 
turns slightly upwards. 
Owe of those remarkably colored species for which the warmer seas are so famous, and 
whose vivid coloring and striking forms put to shame the comparatively sober inhabitants of 
the northern waters, is the Bodiak, or Cuvier’s Bodiax, as it is generally called. 
What connection there may be between colors and caloric is one of the unsolved enigmas 
of creation, and though it is most evident that such a connection exists, its principles and 
even its results are at present shrouded in mystery. 
The tints which decorate the finny inhabitants of these tepid waters are brilliant beyond 
all power of description, and the most glowing colors of the artist, though painted on a ground 
of burnished gold, fail to convey more than a dim idea of the wondrous chromatic effects pro- 
duced by the living creatures. Even the patterns in which these colors are arranged are as 
unexpected as they are effective, and the art student would gain no slight knowledge of that 
most difficult science of color, were he to visit the tropical seas, and study the fishes as they 
swim calmly in the crystalline water, amid the forests of waving seaweeds or branching corals. 
The harmony of the tints is not less remarkable than their brilliancy, for the brightest 
and most glowing colors are flung boldly together in kaleidoscopic profusion, and, in defiance 
of all the conventional rules by which artists like to govern themselves and others, are so 
exquisitely harmonious that not a tint could be altered or removed without destroying the 
entire chromatic effect. Examples of some of these fish will be given in the course of the suc- 
ceeding pages, and the reader will see that, even when laboring in this instance under the dis- 
advantage of substituting plain black and white for their natural colors, they must be truly 
the humming-birds of the ocean. 
Vol. III.— 29. 
