44 
NATURAL HISTORY. [UPPER FLOOR. 
of that fin is often free, and terminates in a series of small 
tentaeula which the fish uses as a bait for taking its prey, 
after the manner of the Angler. It has the faculty of in¬ 
flating its large stomach with air and giving itself the 
form of a balloon, like several of the Gymnodontes; and 
by means of its pedicelled pectoral fins can crawl on land ; 
it can exist two or three days out of the water. The 
Beaked Angler (. Maltke ) has its head flattened, and the 
muzzle produced into a short horn. 
The Labroid fish ( Labridce), Cases 3 and 4, so called 
from the large size of the fleshy lips which cover their teeth, 
have the general form of the Percoid, the body being covered 
with large scales, and having only a single dorsal fin, which 
is spinous in front. Their colours are generally exceed¬ 
ingly brilliant, and from usually living on rocky shores 
they are commonly called Rock Fish. The Parrot Fish 
(Scarus ) is peculiar in this family, for the bones of the 
jaws being very large, and convex externally. The jaws 
are covered on the front part with teeth placed one over 
the other like scales ; and as fast as those at the edge 
are worn away, they are succeeded by a new set. 
The last family of the Acanthopterygians are the tubu¬ 
lar-mouthed fishes, so called from the mouth being elon¬ 
gated into a tube. It consists of only two genera, distin¬ 
guished by the shape of the body, which in the Tobacco- 
pipe Fish ( Fistularia ) is cylindrical, and in the Sea Snipes 
( Centriscus) compressed. * 
The Malacopterygians, or soft-finned fish, which 
form the second division of this Class, are characterized 
by all the rays of the fins (except the first of the dorsal 
and pectoral fins) being ^oft, jointed, and usually divided 
at the end into several branches. This division has been 
separated into orders, according to the position of the 
ventral fin. 
Those of the first group, containing most of the fresh 
water fish, have the ventral fins situated behind the pec¬ 
torals. 
The first family ( Cyprinidce) have a small mouth, feeble 
and generally toothless jaw r s, whose margin is formed by 
the intermaxillary bones ; a strongly-toothed pharynx, and 
a soft, false fin on the back, but no adipose dorsal fin. 
These fish mostly feed on water-plants. Amongst them 
