43 ° 
SO FT-FIN NED GROUF. 
The gigantic sun-fishes ( Orthagoriscus ), which are pelagic forms 
distributed throughout the whole of the temperate and tropical seas, 
alone represent the third subfamily, and are distinguished by the extremely short 
and truncated tail, the confluence of all the median fins, and the short and highly 
compressed body, the dental plates of the jaws being undivided. The skin is 
either rough or smoothly tesselated, and incapable of distention with air; there 
are no pelvic fins; the air-bladder is wanting; and there is an accessory opercular 
gill. As in the globe-fishes, there are no pelvic bones in the skeleton, and the 
vertebral column is remarkable for its extreme shortness, there being only 
seventeen segments in the whole series, of which seven belong to the tail. In all 
the members of the suborder the spinal cord is noticeable for its shortness ; but in 
the sun-fishes this abbreviation has been carried to such an extent that the whole 
cord is little more than a conical backward appendage of the brain. The creatures 
considered to be very young sun-fish are utterly unlike the adult form, having 
an enormous eye, and the head and body armed with a number of large spine-like 
projections. The caudal fin is not developed till much later than the dorsal and 
anal, which in the adult are very short, of great height, and placed opposite to one 
another at the hinder end of the body. The common sun-fish (0. mold), which 
has a rough, finely granulated skin, attains very large dimensions, an example 
caught oft’the coast of Dorsetshire in 1846 measuring 74 feet in length. 
Far rarer is the oblong sun-fish (0. truncatus), which is, indeed, one of the 
scarcest objects in museums. It is readily distinguished by its smooth, tesselated 
skin, and the more elongated form of the body; the entire length being nearly 
three times the breadth. An example of this fish, weighing 500 lbs., was taken in 
Plymouth Sound in the year 1734. Both species appear to feed on small pelagic 
crustaceans. In a fossil state sun-fishes have been recorded from strata of lower 
Miocene or upper Eocene age in Belgium. 
The Soft-Finned Fishes, —Suborder Anacanthini. 
This suborder, which includes the important families of the flat-fish and cods, 
is characterised by the median and pelvic fins being entirely composed of soft 
jointed rays; the pelvic fins, if present, being either jugular or thoracic in position ; 
and the air-bladder, when developed, having no duct communicating with the 
(esophagus. It should, however, be mentioned, that a fresh-water Australian fish 
•( Gadopsis ) forms an exception as regards the structure of its fins, having spines 
in the anterior portion of both the anal and dorsal. The suborder is divided into 
two sections, according to whether the head and body are symmetrical or distorted, 
the first representatives of the former section being 
Family L YCODIDJE. 
This unimportant family, for which there is no proper English name, 
includes small littoral fishes much resembling blennies in general appearance, and 
mostly characteristic of high latitudes, although a few occur within the Tropics. 
As a family they are characterised by the confluence of the median fins; by the 
