528 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
release themselves. They have recourse to the same manoeuvre when 
they wish to raise the body, or when they wish to wind their tail to 
some new object. Their two eyes seem to move independently of 
each other, like those of the chameleon. The iris is bright and edged 
with blue.” 
The sea-horses have the pectoral fins so formed as easily to sustain 
the body, not only in the water, but even in the ah’ ; they are, in fact, 
winged fishes, and probably originated the famous winged courser ol 
mythology, after which they are sometimes named. They rarely 
exceed four inches in length ; the body is covered with triangular scales, 
commonly of a bluish colour. They live on worms, fishes’ eggs, and 
fragments of organic substances which they find in the far land at the 
bottom of the sea. 
III. Malacoi j tekygii. 
The principal character of the fishes of this order is that the rays of 
the fins are soft, except sometimes the first ray of the dorsal or pectorals. 
They inhabit either sea or fresh water, and include fishes of the 
utmost importance as human food, such as the herring, the cod. the 
salmon, carp, pike, and many others. Modern naturalists, following 
Cuvier, subdivide them into three orders : — 1. Apoda, without ventrals ; 
2. Sub-branchiati, ventrals under the pectorals ; 3. Abdominales, 
having ventrals behind the pectorals. 
1. APODA. 
A single family composes this order, which comprehends great 
numbers both in genera and species ; they are anguilliform or snake- 
like, elongated in form, the skin thick and soft, and have no ventral 
fins. In this order are included the Ammodytes, Gymnotes, Mureenas, 
and Anguilla, or eels. 
The Ammodytes have the body elongated and serpent-like, having 
a continuous fin extending along the greater part of the back, with 
another at the opposite side, and a third or forked fin at the end of 
the tail. The muzzle is also long ; the lower jaw longer than the 
upper. A. lancea (Fig. 362) buries itself in the sand ; hence it is called 
the sand-eel ; it hollows out a burrow for itself in the sand with it 3 
muzzle to the depth of fifteen or twenty inches, where it hunts out 
