l^HAUYNGOGNATHS. FISHES. EMBIOTOCIUS. 119 
on our coasts, but none are in much request for the 
table. They abound on the Cornish shores, and at 
some seasons are shipped in quantities for consumption 
by the poor of the eastern districts. As they are com- 
mon fish in the Mediterranean, they must have been 
well known to the ancients; but, from the want of 
precise descriptions, few of the species named by the 
Romans can be recognized with any degree of certainty, 
though some of the generic names have been bor- 
rowed from ancient writers. The Turdus and Merula 
are supposed to have been Labri. Some Crenilabri 
are so brilliant that they are called in Rome at the 
present time Papagelli, or Parrakeets. Our fishermen, 
probably from their gay dress, also name several of the 
family Maids or Wives ; sometimes Old Wives. The 
Tautog or Black-fish of New-York {Tautoga nigra) 
is much esteemed, and fetches a high price in the 
market. It is fed and fatted in preserves. During 
the winter it refuses to eat, but regains its appetite as 
the weather becomes warmer in the spring. Later in 
the season the Tautog procures its food so easily that 
it does not take the fishermen’s hook readily. These 
habits are expressed by the following lines : — 
“ When chestnut leaves are as big as thumb-nail, 
Then bite Black-fish without fail ; 
But when chestnut leaves are as long as a span. 
Then catch Black-fish if you can.” 
The fishing for Black-fish is, according to Mitchill 
from whom these particulars are borrowed, a favourite 
New York pastime. 
The Epibulus insidiator has very protractile jaws, 
which it suddenly thrusts out to seize any unwary 
insect that comes within their reach. The slyness 
with which it preys on the insect race has obtained for 
it from the Dutch of the Moluccas the appellation of 
Bedrieger^ or “ the deceiver,” while the Malays call it 
Big-mouth. 
The term Scarus is considered by Cuvier to be cor- 
rectly used in modern ichthyology to designate the 
genus to which the celebrated Scarus of the ancients 
belonged. This fish was said to utter sounds, to have 
great skill in avoiding nets, and if any of its associates 
were inclosed, knew how to deliver them by gnaw- 
ing the meshes. Aristotle adduces some reasons for 
believing that the Scarus ruminates, and that it is 
the only fish that does so. Pliny repeats the saying 
without hesitation, and adds that therefore it is the 
chief of fishes; and Ovid, Oppian, and others, have 
sung its praises in verse. Moreover, Seleucus asserts 
it to be the only fish that ever sleeps ; and .®lian says 
that it is of all fishes the most strongly inflamed with 
love of its kind. Pliny assigns to it the Carpathian 
sea as its proper habitation, affirming that voluntarily 
it never passes the southern cape of the Tread ; and 
Horace speaks of it as being driven into the Adriatic 
only by winter storms. According to Columella, it 
had not even at a later time passed to the westward of 
Faro di Messina. In the days of the Emperor Claudius, 
however, Optatus Eli'pertius brought some of these fish 
from the Troad, and turned them loose near the mouth 
of the Tiber. During five years all that were taken 
in nets were returned to the sea, after which they 
became abundant on the Italian shores. The pains 
that Elipertius took to bring a supply of this fish within 
reach of the Roman epicures, was justified by the great 
value set upon it. Martial speaks of the intestinal fat 
of a sea-fed Scarus as most excellent ; and Xenocrates 
tells us that the viscera of a Scarus newly brought from 
the sea, and not kept in a vivarium, are most agreeable. 
The liver was in high estimation, and formed, along 
with the melts of murries, the brains of peacocks and 
pheasants, and the tongues of flamingoes, the dish 
named by Vitellius, “the shield of Minerva.” So care- 
ful were Roman dinner-givers to 'have this fish per- 
fectly fresh, that, according to Petronius, the custom 
was to present it alive to the guests before it was con- 
signed to the cook. Its flesh was considered to be 
tender, savoury, and easy of digestion. The Scarus 
Crelensis is even in the present day esteemed as a 
most delicate fish by the inhabitants of Asia Minor ; 
but it is said to be taken with difficulty, and only by 
highly-skilled fishermen. 
Family V.— EMBIOTOCIDS. 
The Embiotocidee of Agassiz, or Holconoti^ are of a 
compressed oval shape, are clothed with middle-sized 
cycloid scales, and their opercular pieces are without 
spines or serratures. The branchiostegals are six in 
number, the lips are moderately thick, and the orifice 
of the mouth is formed above by the premaxillaries — 
the maxillaries being excluded. Both these bones are 
somewhat protractile, and support teeth, as do also the 
mandible and pharyngeals — the vomer and palatines 
being smooth. A stripe of integuments along the base 
of the dorsal fin on each side is destitute of scales. 
The fronts of the dorsal and anal are supported by 
spines, and there is a spine and five branching rays 
in the ventrals. The family name has reference to 
the development of the young in a manner which 
Agassiz considers to be analogous to that of the 
kangaroos. 
The genera are — Embiotoca; Ilolconotus (Agass. in Trosch. 
Archiv. fiir Naturg., 1854, and Sillim. Journ. of Sc., 1853) ; 
Phanerodon (Giv&rd)-, Damalichthys ((i\xaxE) \ A 6eona (Girard); 
Rachochilus (Girard) ; Heysterocarpus (Girard) ; Ennichtliys 
(Girard ) ; and Amphistichus. 
Order IV. — ACANTHOPTERES. 
Muller’s Acanthopleri include the greater part of the being excluded). In this order the internal skeleton 
Acanthopterygians of Linnaeus (certain Pharyngo- is indurated, but none of them, except the Tunnies, 
gnaths and some other groups of soft-finned fishes develop true bone-corpuscles in their hard parts — the 
