THICK-RAYED GROUP. 
349 
Homans in their vivaria, where it is said to have become extremely flat. Several 
species of the genus inhabit the seas and estuaries of India, one of which ( C. bercla) 
occasionally grows to 30 inches in length, and is much esteemed as food in Madras, 
where it is known as black-rock cod. Fossil teeth of a gilt-head occur in the Red 
Crag of Suffolk, and the Miocene strata of Malta and the Canaries. 
The Knife-Jawed Fishes,— Family Hoplognathibie. 
A single small genus of Ashes (Hojdognathus), from the coasts of Australia, 
Japan, and Peru, constitutes a separate family of the present section, characterised 
by the jawbones having a sharp cutting-edge; such teeth as are present being 
■confined to this region, where they are confluent with the bone, to form a more or 
less indistinct serration. The compressed and deep body is covered with very small 
SPOTTED FIRM-FIN liat. size). 
ctenoid scales; while the sides have a continuous lateral line. The dorsal fin has 
its spinous portion rather longer than the soft, with the spines very strong; the 
anal, which has three spines, is similar to the soft dorsal; and the thoracic pelvics 
are furnished with a single spine and five rays. The species figured on the 
opposite page is the Australian one (H. conwayi). Nothing seems to have been 
ascertained with regard to the life-history of any member of the family. 
The Thick-Rayed Fishes,—F amily Cipphitibas. 
This small family, which, for want of a better English name, we designate as 
above, comprises several genera from the Indo-Pacific and Australasian seas, some 
members of which are of the first importance as food-fishes in the British colonies. 
Closely allied to the next family, they differ therefrom (and thereby resemble the 
preceding groups) in the absence of a bony connection between the preopercular 
bone and the infraorbital ring of the skull: while they are specially distinguished 
