144 
SKIPPER. 
abound through the -warmer seasons of the year; but I have 
also found pieces of small red sea-weeds, and even of the marine 
vegetable Zoster a marina, -with small stones; and as this Zoster a 
is not known to grow anywhere out of harbours, in which 
fresh water mingles with that of the sea, it is to be concluded 
that this fish sometimes comes to such a situation in search of 
food. In a rare instance it has also been taken with a hook, 
where the bait was made to imitate a living prey ; and a 
description of the jaws will shew that they are not ill calculated 
for seizing an active object, and to hold it fast. 
The usual length of this fish is from ten to about eighteen 
inches; the body slender, deepest opposite the beginning of the 
back. In the example from which our figure was taken, which 
measured ten mches and a half from the point of the lower 
jaw to the fork of the tail, the depth in a straight line was 
one inch; but in its fattest condition the depth is nearer the 
ventral fins. The head slopes forward fi’om the nape; eye 
rather large; and in the example described the jaws projected 
before the eyes two inches and a half, the lower a little beyond 
the upper. This is sometimes described as turned up, but 
most frequently it ends straight, and sometimes it occurs turned 
a little downward. There are teeth in both jaws, but in the 
upper they are singularly placed; very small, numerous, close 
set, and spreading along the edge, so as to resemble on a small 
scale the teeth along the border of the Saw-fish Shark; and as 
when the lower jaw moves downward, an influence is exerted 
on the upper, so as to raise it as on a hinge, the grasp is 
wider than at first sight may appear; in this respect bearing a 
near likeness to the structure and use of the same parts in the 
Garfish. Nostrils in front of the eyes, placed in a recess of 
firm structure, resembling a mystache. A row of seventeen 
blue dots along the margin of the first gill-cover, which, on 
close examination, are seen to be pores. The body covered 
with scales of rather small size; and along each side of the 
belly a row of them of diflerent form, as there is also in the 
Garfish, and less conspicuously in the Flying Fishes; the use 
of which is to serve as a point of support for muscles, from 
which additional strength is exerted for those lively actions by 
which all these fishes are distinguished. The pectoral fins are 
small, pointed at the upper part, and so constructed as to give 
