THE BELLO WS-FISH. 
263 
The color of this species is violet spotted profusely with black, and the fins are marked 
with sundry bold bars and dots. In length it often attains three feet. 
The remarkable Band-fish, or Snake-fish (Cepolct Tubescens ), is an example of a curious 
family, consisting of one genus only, and about seven species. 
The Band-fish is not uncommon in the Mediterranean, though it is seldom taken off the 
English coasts. Its body is long and much compressed, like that of the vaagmar, already 
described ; and when winding its way through the translucent water, its carmine body with 
the glittering scaly mail have earned for it the popular names of Fire-Flame and Red 
Riband. 
Little is known of its habits, except that it is a shore-loving fish, delighting to bask under 
the heavy masses of sheltering sea- weed, and that it feed smostly on mollusks and Crustacea. 
Several specimens of this fish have been found on the beach after a storm ; and Mr. Yarrell 
remarks, with some acumen, that all the fish formed after this pattern, with their compressed 
bodies affording little resistance to the water, and their length preventing the concentration 
of muscular force upon a single centre of motion, are ill fitted for combating tempestuous 
waters, and are flung about at the mercy of the waves. 
The head of the Band-fish is small, and the eye is full and very large, its diameter being 
nearly half the depth of the head. The body is greatly compressed, slender, and very smooth ; 
the scales being minute and glittering in the sunbeams. The dorsal fin extends from the top 
of the head to the end of the tail, and the anal fin is nearly as long. Its color is rather vari- 
able, shades of purple and orange exhibiting themselves in certain specimens. In all examples, 
however, rod is the predominant hue. The length of the adult Band-fish is usually about 
fifteen or twenty inches. 
In the curious species which belong to the genus Centriscidse, or spike-bearing fishes, the 
body is much compressed, and one of the spines of the first dorsal fin is long, sharp, and 
powerful. The bones which form the front of the head are greatly prolonged, and are modi- 
fied into a kind of long tube, at the end of which is placed the narrow mouth. It is thought 
that the fish obtains its food by sucking it along the tube, the needful vacuum being formed 
by the dilatation of the throat. 
The Bellows-fish, sometimes called the Trumpet-fish and the Sea Snipe, is most com- 
mon in the Mediterranean. It prefers to reside in moderately deep water, and is mostly found 
where the bottom of the sea is muddy. Its food is not precisely known, but is thought to 
consist of minute marine animals. The first spine of the dorsal fin is enormously large, strong, 
sharply pointed, and armed on its under surface with a row of saw-like teeth, that must render 
it a very efficient weapon of offence. The spine is also movable. The flesh of this fish is eat- 
