# Natural History, Fishes/Acanthopterygii

ORDER I. ACANTHOPTERYGII.
(Spiny-finned Fishes.)
The skeleton in this large and very natural Order is composed of bone; the first rays (counting from the head backward), of the dorsal fin, of the pectorals, and of the anal, and, generally the first ray of the ventrals are unjointed, inflexible, and spinous. When there is more than one dorsal, the anterior is entirely filled with spinous rays. In some cases, as in the common Sticklebacks, the spinous rays are unconnected by a common membrane, and form free spines. The ventrals are, for the most part beneath the pectorals, or even in advance of them. The body is clothed with scales formed of successive laminæ or layers of horn-like, unenamelled bone, which have their free hinder margin cut into teeth. The swimming-bladder is not furnished with an air-duct leading into the gullet.
Nearly two-thirds of the species belonging to the whole Class of Fishes are found in this Order, which are scattered over all parts of the world, both in fresh and salt waters. Many of them are distinguished for elegance of form and beauty of colour; nearly all are fit for food, and some, as the Mackerel family, including the Tunny, support important fisheries.
The form of the dorsal fin is subject to much variation in this Order. Nearly half of the species have it divided into two, a spinous and a ​flexible one; a large portion of the remainder have the division indicated by a depression in the margin, or a cleft more or less deep, though the membrane is continuous. In some cases, as already intimated, the first dorsal is represented by a few detached spines, either quite destitute of membrane, or each furnished with its own.
In some of the Gurnards one or more of the spinous rays are greatly prolonged beyond the membrane; in the Dory the membrane is prolonged between the spines into lengthened threads; in the Sword-fish, the Opah, and the Gemmeous Dragonet, the anterior portion is elevated like a sail; while in the singular genus Pteraclis, of the American seas, figured on the opposite page, both the dorsal and the anal are so immense as to give to the vertical outline of this fish somewhat the form of a butterfly with expanded wings. The Gurnards have the pectorals unusually developed, so that some foreign species can use them as organs of flight through the air. Examples of this, in a less degree, may be observed in our native species, ​which have these fins very large, and several long supplementary rays in front of them.
The following seventeen Families of Acanthopterygian Fishes are enumerated in the synopsis of the Prince of Canino, who gives the affixed number of species known (in 1831) to belong to each.
SP. :
| 1 | Percadæ | 483 |
| 2 | Sphyrænadæ | 15 |
| 3 | Mullidæ | 42 |
| 4 | Trigladæ | 164 |
| 5 | Sciænadæ | 231 |
| 6 | Sparidæ | 158 |
| 7 | Mænadæ | 43 |
| 8 | Chætodontidæ | 157 |
| 9 | Scombridæ | 262 |
| 10 | Cepoladæ | 14 |
| 11 | Teuthididæ | 60 |
| 12 | Ophiocephalidæ | 40 |
| 13 | Mugilidæ | 52 |
| 14 | Gobiadæ | 173 |
| 15 | Lophiadæ | 40 |
| 16 | Labridæ | 283 |
| 17 | Fistulariadæ | 15 |
| Total 2232 |||
Family I. Percadæ.
(Perches.)
A vast assemblage of species, amounting to about one-seventh of the whole Class, is seen by the preceding table to be comprised in this Family. They are, for the most part, marine fishes, though the typical genus, which gives a name to the Family, inhabits fresh waters. The form is generally long-oval; the body is covered with scales, the surface of which is more or less rough, and the free margins of which are notched like the teeth of a comb; the scales do not extend upon the fins; the gill-cover (operculum), and the gill-flap (preoperculum), are variously armed with spines, and cut into teeth at their margins. Both the upper and lower jaw are set with teeth, besides which, the bones of the palate and the vomer (or middle ridge of the roof of the mouth) are furnished with them, so that there are five rows of teeth above, and two below. In general, all the teeth are fine, and set in close array, so as to bear a remote resemblance, in appearance, to the pile of velvet. The branchiostegous rays, or the slender arched bones of the membrane that closes the great fissure of the gills beneath, vary in number from five to seven. The ventral fins are, in general, placed under the pectorals; the dorsal is either double or depressed in the middle.
So immense a Family cannot but comprise several varieties of form, which, while agreeing in the important characteristics that distinguish these Fishes from those of the other Families, ​differ considerably in subordinate points. Five leading types are seen to subsist, around which so many groups, called Sub-Families, are arranged. These we shall briefly notice.
The true Perches (Percina) have two distinct dorsal fins, with the membrane which connects the rays semi-transparent and nearly colourless. The pectorals and ventrals are obtuse, or somewhat rounded; the former contain each five soft rays; the latter are placed beneath the pectorals. The form of the body is oblong; the scales are comparatively large; the mouth is wide, and furnished with short and small teeth much crowded, without any larger pointed teeth, resembling canines, at the sides. The genus Lucioperca, as its name, signifying Pike-perch, expresses, has the structure of a Perch with the form and appearance, and even the ferocity of a Pike; while the Diploprion, of the coast of Java, and still more the Enoplosus of Australia, might readily be mistaken for a true Chætodon, having not only the short, high, compressed form of that genus, with its tall fins, but the small mouth, and delicate teeth, and even the characteristic colours and markings of Chætodon, the former being yellow, with a black vertical band through the eye, and another across the body, and the latter silvery white, with seven or eight vertical bands. Yet in each case the fins are destitute of scales, the gill-plates are spinous, and all the essential characters of true Perches, are exhibited.
The Serrans (Serranina), a very numerous sub-family, are distinguished by having the two dorsals united into a single fin, the place of the division being marked, however, by a depression ​more or less deep in the outline. They have for the most part a larger acute tooth on each side of the mouth, resembling the canines of Mammalia. Their colours are generally beautiful, and frequently arranged in bands and spots, extending upon the fin-membranes. They are all marine, and nearly all tropical, but some are found in the Mediterranean, and two species have been met with on the coast of Cornwall.
The third Sub-family, named Holocentrina, or the Mailed Perches, are still more beautiful than the preceding. They are usually of small size, but of great brilliancy of colouring, the prevailing hues being various shades of red, ranging from the richest crimson to a gorgeous orange or golden hue. They are all clothed with bony, generally toothed, scales, which in some of the genera form a close impenetrable coat of mail. Not a single British example of this group is known, they being almost confined to the tropical seas.
In the Jugular Perches (Percophina) the ventrals are placed beneath the throat, considerably in advance of the line of the pectorals. The head is pointed, and the lips generally thickened, as in the Wrasses (Labridæ); the body is remarkably lengthened. To this group belong some common British Fishes known as Weevers (Trachinus, Linn.), remarkable for the enormous length of the second dorsal and the anal, and for the formidable spines with which they are armed. These spines are the rays of the first dorsal, which are very sharp and strong, and a long lance-like spine on the gill-flap; wounds inflicted with which are believed to be poisoned. Whether ​this be so or not, it is certain that they speedily exhibit symptoms of strong inflammation, attended with acute pain, extending to a great distance from the part lacerated. The Weever appears to be perfectly aware of the power of its weapons; it buries itself in the mud or sand at the bottom, with its mouth, which opens upwards, exposed. As it thus lies in wait for any passing prey, it may often be touched by an unconscious assailant, when instantly the little warrior strikes forcibly with his pointed spears, upwards and to each side. Pennant says of the Little Weever, that he has seen it direct its blows with as much judgment as a fighting-cock.
The last Sub-Family, the Helotina, "constitute," says Cuvier, "a group formed, as it were, to make naturalists despair, by showing how Nature laughs at what we deem characteristic combinations;" the genera possessing mutual relations sufficient to forbid their separation, and bearing a great resemblance to the other members of the common Family; while the species exhibit in the subordinate characters, such as the number, form, position, and even presence of the teeth, much diversity. None, however, have more than six gill-arches; they have no scales on the head, muzzle, or jaws; the dorsal spines, when depressed, fall into a longitudinal groove on the back; and the air-bladder is always divided into two distinct sacs, connected by a narrow neck. These too are chiefly inhabitants of warm latitudes, some marine, and some fluviatile; they do not possess much attractiveness of appearance, their colour being, in general, silvery grey, marked with dusky longitudinal lines.
Genus Perca. (Linn.)
The distinctive characters of the Perches proper are two dorsal fins quite separated, of which the fore one possesses only spinous rays, the hinder only flexible or soft ones. The tongue is smooth; the mouth is armed with teeth, situated in both jaws, in front of the vomer or middle
ridge of the palate, and on the bones of the palate itself; the fore gill-flap (preoperculum) is notched below, and has its hind edge cut into small teeth like those of a saw; the gill-cover (operculum) is bony, and terminates in a flattened spiine pointing backwards. The gill-arches are ​seven. The scales are rough, hard, and detached with difficulty.
The Common Perch (Perca fluviatilis, Linn.) is well known, not only to the angler, but to almost every country child; for it inhabits most of our lakes and rivers, especially where the banks are steep, and is so bold as to bite at nearly any bait. Hence this is usually the first fish that rewards the infant angler’s enterprise.
It scarcely yields to any of our native Fishes in
beauty; its form is compact and powerful, and its colours attractive, especially when seen through the clear water in which it is playing. Its aspect, ​however, when drawn from the water, is determined and almost ferocious, particularly when the high and spinous dorsal-fin is stiffly erected.
The excellence of the Perch, as a table fish, is generally acknowledged; in this respect, perhaps, it is exceeded by none of our fluviatile species, with the exception of the Trout and the Salmon. Perch of five pounds are not uncommon, and they have been known to attain even double this weight. A Fish of large size needs good tackle as well as skill in the angler, for it is powerful in proportion to its size. When Perch run large, a minnow, roach, or gudgeon is a successful bait; but the more usual baits are worms and gentles; fresh-water shrimps are much used by those who fish for Perch in the docks of London, where these Fishes are both fine and plentiful. In still water, as that of lakes or ponds, the bait should be allowed to float in mid-water; in rivers, nearer the bottom. In March, the Perch deposits its spawn, after which it will afford good sport to the end of October; a cool day with a fresh breeze to ruffle the surface, being most propitious.
The readiness with which this beautiful fish is taken is partly due to its voracity, in which it almost equals the ravenous Pike; when hungry indeed, it will seize almost any object that is presented to it. A writer in the New Sporting Magazine, says that he has repeatedly taken a Perch with no other bait than a portion of the gills of one just captured, accidentally remaining on the hook, the line having been carelessly allowed to drop into the water while a fresh bait was being selected. "Red seems an attractive ​colour to them, and whether it presents itself in the blood of one of their former companions, or the hackle of a cock, is a matter of perfect indifference."
There are plenty of very fine Perch all along the Thames, but the most favourite resorts for these fish, are the deeps near Twickenham, either above or below the lock at Teddington, and in some deep holes about halfway between the lock and Hampton Wick; Perch have been taken in these places frequently as large as four pounds' weight each.
Very large Perch and Trout are taken in the rivers of Ireland, by a contrivance known as the pooka. It consists of a flat board, with a little mast and sail erected on it. Its use is to carry out the extremity of a long, stout line, to which are suspended at certain intervals, a great number of droppers, each armed with a baited hook. Corks are affixed to the principal line to keep it floating, and from a weather shore, any quantity of hooks can thus be floated over the water. The corks indicate to the fisher when a fish is on a dropper, and in a small punt he attends to remove the fish and rebait the hooks. Two hundred hooks are sometimes used on one pooka, which affords much amusement and a well-filled pannier.
This beautiful Fish appears to be common in the rivers and lakes throughout Ireland; in Scotland, however, it is rare, and in the waters that dissect, as it were, the northern portion of that kingdom, it is quite unknown. On the continent, it has a much more northern range; for large Perch, ​of five or six pounds in weight, are abundant in the lakes and rivers of Sweden, and afford good angling. The head of a Perch is said to be preserved in the church of Luehlah, in Lapland, which measures nearly twelve inches from the point of the nose to the end of the gill-cover, which, according to the proportion of parts in ordinary specimens, would give the enormous total length of four feet for this Fish. It is possible, however, that this may be the head of some other species.
Perch resort to pits, eddies, holes, the pillars of bridges, and mill-dams; they frequent the floors of staunches early in the morning, where they may be taken in great numbers at break of day, by means of a casting-net; in these places they work to meet the fresh water that oozes through.
The Perch has a tendency to ascend towards the springs of rivers, having a great repugnance to sea-water. It delights in clean swift streams with a gravelly bottom, not very deep; it is seldom found at a greater depth than a yard below the surface. It is tenacious of life, though perhaps less so than the Carp; it has been known to survive a journey of fifty miles, in the old days of travelling, when railways were unknown.
Like other "anglers' Fish," the Perch is not very often seen on the stalls of fishmongers in London. In Billingsgate market it is, however, sometimes exposed, especially on Fridays, as it is bought chiefly by Jews to form part of their Sabbath repast. We believe that this Fish is kept by the dealers in tanks, and that those which are not sold are frequently so little injured by ​exposure, as to be returned to the water, where they soon recover.
O'Gorman describes the Perch as fond of noise, and as even sensible to the charms of music. One of his sons assured him that he had once seen a vast shoal of Perch appear at the surface, attracted by the sound of the bag-pipes of a Scotch regiment, that happened to be passing over a neighbouring bridge, and that they remained until the sounds died away in the distance.
The Perch is a bold and fearless fish, and not a little destructive: small fry of all kinds are greedily devoured by him; he roots up the spawn-beds to feed on the deposited ova; small Roach and Trout are destroyed by him in great numbers, and even Trout of considerable size are often driven from their feeding-places near shore by this beautiful but tyrannical spinous-finned fish.
In the beautiful lake of Geneva the Perch is said to be subject to a singular accident. In the winter these fishes ordinarily remain at a considerable depth, where, from the superincumbent weight of so great a body of water, the air contained within the swim-bladder is much compressed. If now from any impulse a fish suddenly rises to the surface, the pressure being removed, the air forcibly expands, and not being able to find any outlet, the membranous bladder becomes greatly distended, sometimes to such a degree that it is forced out at the mouth of the fish, dragging the stomach, turned inside out, with it. In this sad condition, unable to sink, the ​poor fish floats a few days on the surface, dragging out a miserable existence, until death puts a period to its sufferings. If, however, the bladder be pierced when in this state, the contained air escapes, the viscera recover their proper position, and the fish is saved.
The Perch spawns at the age of three years, when it is about six inches in length; the month of April is the season for this operation if the water be moderately shallow; but in deep water the spawning is later. In a Perch of two pounds the roe weighs seven or eight ounces, and contains, according to Harmers, 281,000 eggs, but according to Picot, nearly a million; the number varying according to the age of the fish. Large and old fishes contain more ova than the smaller ones, which is not surprising, since the individual eggs are of the same size in both; they are very minute, and have been compared to poppy seeds.
The Perch, when seen alive in a clear stream, is, as we have said, a beautiful fish. Perhaps the elevation of its back may be thought to detract from its elegance of form, giving it a humped appearance. The back rises somewhat abruptly just behind the head, after which it tapers to the tail: the height of the body, independent of the fins, is about twice that of the width. The general hue of the upper parts is a rich olive, crossed by five or six dark brown bands, which become inconspicuous after death. The sides have a brassy tinge, with pearly and steel-blue reflections about the cheeks; the under parts are pure silvery white. The two dorsal fins, and the pectorals take ​nearly the same hues as the parts from which they respectively arise; but the caudal, the anal, and the ventrals have their rays of the most brilliant scarlet, especially the latter, and the membranes are tinged with the same hue. The iris of the eye is golden. The lateral line is distinct, running in a slightly arching line from the gill-flap to the tail-fin.
Mr. Yarrell mentions, as having been found in the waters of particular soils, specimens of the Perch almost entirely white; and others of an uniform slate-grey hue with a silvery appearance. The latter variety is obtained in the ponds of Ravenfield Park, in Yorkshire, and is found to retain its peculiarity of colour, when transferred from its native ponds to other waters.
Yet another variation of hue, associated with another curious peculiarity, is ascribed to the Perch of Malham, or Maum Tarn, in Yorkshire, by Hartley, the author of an account of some natural curiosities of that neighbourhood. Speaking of these fishes, he says, "There is certainly a very extraordinary phenomenon attending them, the cause of which I leave to naturalists to ascertain. After a certain age they become blind: a hard, thick, yellow film covers the whole surface of the eye, and renders the sight totally obscured. When this is the case, the fish generally are exceedingly black; and although, from the more extreme toughness and consistency of the membrane, it is evident that some have been much longer in this state than others, yet there appears no difference either in their flavour or condition. Perch of five pounds' weight and more have been taken. They are only to be caught with a net; ​and appear to feed at the "bottom, on Loach, Miller's Thumb, and testaceous mollusca."
The scales of the Perch have their hinder, or free edge, set with fine crystalline points, arranged in successive rows, and overlapping. Their
front side is cut with a scolloped pattern, the extremities of undulations of the surface that radiate from a common point behind the centre. These undulations are separated by narrow furrows, across which, contrary to the ordinary rule, the close-set concentric lines that follow the sinuosities of the outline are not visible. Under the microscope they look as if they had been split in these radiating lines, after the whole number of layers had been completed, and that the fissures had then been filled with new transparent substance. The engraving above represents scales selected from different parts of the body of a Perch, and magnified. a is from the back; b is from the lateral line, and shows the tube for the passage of the lubricating mucus well developed; c is from the belly. The concentric lines, it should be observed, are much more delicate and close than could possibly be engraved without greatly enlarging the scale.
​The nostril in the Perch has two external openings, surrounded by several orifices, through which issues a mucous secretion for the defence of the skin against the action of the water. "The distribution of the mucous orifices over the head," remarks Mr. Yarrell, "is one of those beautiful and advantageous provisions of Nature which are so often to be observed and admired. Whether the fish inhabits the stream or the lake, the current of the water in the one case, or progression through it in the other, carries this defensive secretion backwards, and spreads it over the whole surface of the body. In fishes with small scales, this defensive secretion is in proportion more abundant; and in those species which have the body elongated, as the Eels, the mucous orifices may be observed along the whole length of the lateral line."
Family II. Sphyrænadæ.
(Sea-Pikes).
The fishes of this Family were placed by Linnæus among the Pikes, which they resemble in their lengthened form, in their strong and pointed teeth, and in the projection of their lower jaw. They are now, however, widely removed from that genus. Cuvier arranged them in the great Family of the Perches, with which they have many points in common; but the Prince of Canino forms them into a distinct Family.
They have the ventral fins placed considerably behind the pectorals, and the bones of the pelvis ​are quite detached from the bones of the shoulders. The head is long, and the lower jaw projects beyond the upper, giving a ferocious aspect to the countenance, well borne out by the habits and powers of at least the principal genus. They have two dorsals, both placed far behind; the second is small, and in one of the genera
(Paralepis), fleshy. The Family is very limited, containing only about fifteen living species, inhabiting the Mediterranean and the warmer parts of the ocean. There are, however, thirteen fossil species assigned to it.
Genus Sphyræna.
The technical characters of this genus are, that the body is slender and much lengthened; the jaws are long and broad, but of little depth; the mouth is large, armed with strong teeth, some of which are larger and stouter than the others; the chin is advanced and pointed; the two dorsal fins are triangular in form, remote from each other, and dividing the whole length of the body into three equal parts; the ventrals are placed beneath the first dorsal.
​The Barracoota of the West Indies (Sphyræna barracuda, Cuv.), is reckoned among the number of marine monsters greedy of human flesh. It is common in the seas that wash those lovely tropical islands, where it attains the length of ten or twelve feet, though it is more generally met with about half that size. The thickness is not in
proportion to the length. The mouth is wide, the lower jaw projects beyond the upper, and is armed with formidable teeth, with two larger pointed canines in front; the upper jaw has many large and strong teeth scattered among minute ones. The two dorsals are placed far apart, the first immediately above the ventrals, the second above the anal. The formula of the fin-rays is as follows: D. 5; 1—9; C. 19; P. 12; V. 1—5; A. 1—9. The tail is much forked. The upper parts are dark greyish brown, becoming paler on the sides, the belly white. It is covered with small thin scales.
This formidable and voracious fish is much dreaded in the seas which it inhabits. It not unfrequently attacks and devours men while bathing; Dutertre affirms that it is even more dangerous than the dreadful shark, inasmuch as noise and motion, so far from intimidating it, only excite it ​the rather to rush towards its victims. Notwithstanding this anthropophagous appetite, however, it is eaten with relish, and is publicly sold in the fish-markets. A graver objection to it is that it is occasionally poisonous, which the colonists believe is owing to its feeding on submerged "copper-banks," or else to its having eaten the deadly fruit of the Manchioneel-tree. If incautiously tasted under such circumstances, it is said to produce sickness, vomiting, and intolerable pain in the head, accompanied with loss of the hair and nails; and, in very bad cases, immediate death is the result. As a criterion of its wholesomeness, the teeth and liver are examined; if the former be white and the latter bitter, it is sound; but if the teeth be green and the liver sweetish, it cannot be eaten with impunity.
"What has been reported," observes M. Cuvier, "of the poisonous fishes of hot countries, and of that disease called siguatera, which they occasion in certain circumstances, is so curious and interesting, that I am justified in inserting the information collected by M. Plée on the Barracoota, which I have found in the papers of that unfortunate naturalist. Many persons, says he, fear to eat this fish because they have had frequent evidence of its causing disease, and sometimes death. This poisonous quality of the Barracoota belongs very certainly to a particular state of the individual, which appears to occur at different seasons of the year.
"I have consulted many persons with regard to the poison of the Barracoota; all have assured me that there is an infallible mode of determining whether it is, or is not, poisonous. For this end ​they have only to observe if, in cutting it up, there flows away a sort of white water, or rather a kind of thin matter, which is, in every case, a certain sign that the fish is in the diseased state of which I have spoken above. D. Arthur O'Neill, Marquis del Norte, has told me that he has seen experiments tried on dogs, and that all have confirmed the exactness of this criterion. The symptoms of poisoning by the Barracoota are, a general trembling, nausea, vomiting, and acute pains, particularly in the joints of the arms and the hands. Sometimes the symptoms succeed each other with such rapidity that it becomes extremely difficult to determine with precision the different periods of the disease.
"When death does not terminate the malady, which happily is the more ordinary case, the virus is sometimes seen to cause pathological phenomena altogether singular. The pains in the joints become stronger; the nails of the feet and hands gradually fall away; the hair also, which is of a nature analogous to the nails, ends by falling off. These phenomena have been observed in many individuals, sometimes continuing during a great number of years. A person has been mentioned to me, who suffered in this way more than twenty-five years.
"It is a remarkable fact that when the Barracoota has been salted, it never causes any accident. At St. Croix, for example, they are in the habit of eating it only the day after it has been salted. Does salt act as an antidote to the poison of this fish?
"I have not myself been a witness of any cases of poisoning by the Barracoota, and I have only ​recorded what I have been told by persons in other respects well instructed and worthy of credit."
Family III. Mullidæ.
(Surmullets).
This also is a Family of limited extent, arranged by Cuvier with the Perches. Its distinctive characters are these:—the shape is somewhat oval, but the fore parts are thick in proportion to the hind; the head is large, somewhat compressed, higher than broad; the profile is abrupt, approaching to a vertical line; the eyes are placed near the summit, but look laterally; the mouth is small, armed with minute teeth; the lower jaw is furnished with two fleshy beards (cirri), which depend from its under side; the line of the back is arched, that of the belly nearly straight; the gill-cover and body are clothed with large scales, easily detached: there are two dorsal fins, widely separated; the caudal is forked.
About fifty species are included in this Family, contained in two genera, Mullus and Upeneus. The former of these, containing but two species, is found in the Mediterranean and in the British seas; the latter and more numerous one, little differing from it in appearance or structure, is distributed over the tropical parts of the ocean. They are nearly all coloured with different shades of red, often varied with yellow or pale stripes; their flesh is much esteemed.
Genus Mullus. (Linn.)
The European Surmullets are distinguished by having the characters already enumerated more strongly developed; the head is very abrupt, the profile nearly vertical, the gill-cover is smooth, and destitute of any spine; the teeth on the palate and in the lower jaw very minute.
Of the two species which form this genus, both of which are marked in catalogues as British, one is as common as the other is rare. The former is
the Striped Surmullet (Mullus surmuletus, Linn.), and is found in our fish-markets throughout the year, though in greatest abundance during the summer months. It is commonly about ten inches or a foot in length, and is rarely known to exceed fourteen inches. Its form and general appearance will be recognised from the accompanying engraving, but it should be seen alive, or at least just dead, to convey a notion of its beauty, which depends on its evanescent hues. The ​ground-colour is a delicate pink, interrupted by three or four pale yellowish bands which run down the sides. The scales, however, which are very large, are removed with a slight degree of force; and wherever this occurs, there is a deposit of blood at the injured part below the outer skin; manifested by the colour becoming then of a purplish red, and hence we so commonly see this fish, especially after it has been handled, marbled with patches of purple and scarlet upon the delicate rose-colour of the ground.
The Surmullet is much esteemed for the table; the flesh is of agreeable flavour, and easy of digestion. It is customary to prepare it for cooking without drawing, like the Woodcock; the reason in both cases being that the food consists of soft molluscous or annellidous animals, of which little traces remain in the intestines. The Romans carried their admiration of this fish to a most extravagant pitch in the luxurious times of the Empire. The satirical poets, lashing the vices and follies of the age, have given us some particulars of this mania, only surpassed by the Tulip-madness which raged in Holland in the 17th century, when a sum equal to 425l. sterling, together with a carriage, horses, and harness, was given for a single bulb. One Calliodorus gave a sum of money equal to ten guineas for a Surmullet of four pounds' weight; one of six pounds was bought for 48l.; one still larger for 64l.; and three of equal size were purchased by the Emperor for the same entertainment at the enormous price of 243l. 10s. At length Tiberius attempted to restrain the extravagance by imposing a tax upon all provisions brought to market.
​Messengers were sent at great expense to the most distant shores of the Mediterranean to procure these fishes, which, when brought home, were kept alive in vivaria or tanks of sea-water. By a refinement of luxury, the Mullets were even brought to table alive, that the guests might feast their eyes upon the changes of hue which flit over the bodies of these fishes in the agonies of death. "The fishes," says Cicero, "swim under the couches of the guests. A Mullet is not considered fresh unless it actually die before their eyes; they gaze upon it exposed to view in glass bowls, and watch the various tints that play over it one after another as it passes from life to death." The species selected for this inhuman exhibition appears to have been the smaller and more rare M. barbatus, which is destitute of yellow stripes, and does not exceed six inches in length. The name of the genus Mullus is said to have been given to these fishes from their hue resembling that of the Mulleus or scarlet sandal worn by the Roman Consuls and Emperors.
The curious organs called beards (cirri) that are attached to the chin in these and some other fishes are connected with the search after food. Mr. Yarrell has some interesting observations on this subject, which we shall here quote from his valuable volume on British Fishes. "These cirri are generally placed near the mouth, and they are mostly found in those fishes that are known to feed very near the bottom. On dissecting these appendages in the Mullet, the common Cod, and others, I found them to consist of an elongated and slender flexible cartilage, invested by numerous longitudinal muscular and nervous fibres, and ​covered by an extension of the common skin. The muscular apparatus is most apparent in the Mullet, the nervous portion most conspicuous in the Cod. These appendages are to them, I have no doubt, delicate organs of touch, by which all the species provided with them are enabled to ascertain, to a certain extent, the qualities of the various substances with which they are brought in contact; and are analogous in function to the beak, with its distribution of nerves, among certain wading and swimming birds, which probe for food beyond their sight; and may be considered another instance, among the many beautiful provisions of Nature, by which, in the case of fishes feeding at great depths, where light is deficient, compensation is made for consequent imperfect vision."
The Striped Surmullet is occasionally taken in great abundance: the eminent zoologist just cited mentions five thousand taken in one night in Weymouth Bay, in August, 1819; and ten thousand sent from Yarmouth to the London market in one week, in May 1831. Their presence, however, is precarious; sometimes they become quite rare, where a day or two before they were abundant; other spots at the same time becoming the favoured scenes of their resort. They are principally taken with the trawl-net, which drags along the bottom of the sea.
Family IV. Trigladæ.
(Gurnards.)
Cuvier formed these Fishes into the second Family of the Acanthopterygii in his system, giving to the group, however, thus constituted, no other appellation than the descriptive one of "Fishes with hard cheeks." In these words their most obvious character is indicated, the head and face being encased in a solid buckler of bone, or in hard plates soldered together. In general, the plates as well as the gill-covers, are more or less armed with projecting spines. The technical distinction between the Gurnards and the Perches, to which Family they are very closely allied, consists in the bone beneath the eyes (the sub-orbital bone)—which is greatly dilated, so as to cover the cheeks,—being jointed to the gill-cover. Those curious fishes of the Perch family, the Stargazers (Uranoscopus), have the head mailed and angled much in the same way as the Gurnards, and have their eyes directed even still more vertically; but, in that genus, the sub-orbital bone, though very broad, is united with the temporal bones, and not with the gill-cover.
The fins are well developed; especially the pectorals, which often assume gay colours, and dimensions so great, that, like the true Flying fishes of another Order (Exocœtus), these fishes are capable of projecting their bodies into the air, and of taking long leaps. Some genera have several finger-like rays, unconnected by membrane, in front of the pectorals; which probably ​serve them as organs of touch, endowed with a sensibility to impressions that are indispensable in the situations where they haunt, as bottom feeders.
About two hundred and sixty species are enumerated in the Family, of which just one tenth part are European.
To this Family belongs a genus of fishes containing many well-known inhabitants of our coasts and rivers, the Sticklebacks (Gasterosteus). We have seven species, all of them of small size, some of which are familiar to every truant schoolboy by their abundance, their pigmy dimensions, their armature of spines and plates, their vivacity and boldness, and the beautiful tints of green, crimson, and silver, with which they are frequently adorned.
These little fishes, however, present other claims to our attention; for they afford additional examples of an instinct which has been considered almost if not quite unknown in the Class to which they belong, that of nest-building. The habits of one of these species, which appears to be the commonest of the Three-spined Sticklebacks (G. trachurus) have been described by a careful observer in a little-known periodical, called "The Youth's Instructor;" and his account carries its own guarantee of correctness with it. "In a large dock for shipping on the Thames," observes this writer, "thousands of these fish were bred some years ago; and I have often amused myself for hours by observing them. While multitudes have been enjoying themselves near the shore in the warm sunshine, others have been busily engaged in making their nests, if a ​nest it may be called. It consisted of the very minutest pieces of straw, or sticks, the exact colour of the ground at the bottom of the water, on which it was laid: so that it was next to an impossibility for any one to discover the nest, unless he saw the fish at work, or observed the eggs. The nest is somewhat larger than a shilling, and has a top or cover, with a hole in the centre, about the size of a very small nut; in which are deposited the eggs, or spawn. This opening is frequently concealed by drawing small fragments over it; but this is not always the case. Many times have I taken up the nest, and thrown the eggs to the multitude around, which they instantly devoured with the greatest voracity. These eggs are about the size of poppy-seeds, and of a bright-yellow-colour; but I have at times seen them almost black, which I suppose is an indication that they are approaching to life. In making the nest, I observed that the fish used an uncommon degree of force when conveying the material to its destination. When the fish was about an inch from the nest, it suddenly darted at the spot, and left the tiny fragment in its place; after which it would be engaged for half a minute in adjusting it. The nest, when taken up, did not separate, but hung together, like a piece of wool.… The place chosen by these fishes for their nests is where the ground forms an inclined plane, and in about six inches of water.… I think they breed early in the month of August."
Another species of the same genus, the largest which is found on our shores, the Fifteen-spined Stickleback (G. spinachia), sometimes called the ​Sea-adder, is endowed with a similar instinct. The author of a communication to the Royal Institution of Cornwall, republished in the "Zoologist," thus records his observations:—"During the summers of 1842, and 1843, while searching for the naked mollusks of the county, I occasionally discovered portions of sea-weed and the common coralline hanging from the rocks in pear-shaped masses, variously intermingled with each other. On one occasion, having observed that the mass was very curiously bound together by a slender silken-looking thread, it was torn open, and the centre was found to be occupied by a mass of transparent amber-coloured ova, each being about the tenth of an inch in diameter. Though examined on the spot with a lens, nothing could be discovered to indicate their character. They were, however, kept in a basin, and daily supplied with sea-water, and eventually proved to be the young of some fish. The nest varies a great deal in size, but rarely exceeds six inches in length, or four inches in breadth. It is pear-shaped, and composed of sea-weed or the common coralline, as they hang suspended from the rock. They are brought together, without being detached from their places of growth, by a delicate, opaque, white thread. This thread is highly elastic, and very much resembles silk, both in appearance and texture; this is brought round the plants, and tightly binds them together, plant after plant, till the ova, which are deposited early, are completely hidden from view. This silk-like thread is passed in all directions through and around the mass, in a very complicated manner. At first, ​the thread is semi-fluid, but by exposure it solidifies; and hence contracts and binds the substances forming the nest so closely together, that it is able to withstand the violence of the sea, and may be thrown carelessly about without derangement. In the centre are deposited the ova, very similar to the masses of frog-spawn in ditches.…
"It is not necessary to enter into minute particulars of the development of the young, any further than to add that they were the subject of observation till they became excluded from the egg, and that they belonged to the Fifteen-spined Stickleback (Gasterosteus spinachia). Some of these nests are formed in pools, and are, consequently, always in water: others are frequently to be found between tide-marks, in situations where they hang dry for several hours in the day; but whether in the water or liable to hang dry, they are always carefully watched by the adult animal: on one occasion, I repeatedly visited one every day for three weeks, and invariably found it guarded. The old fish would examine it on all sides, and then retire for a short time, but soon returned to renew the examination. On several occasions I laid the eggs bare, by removing a portion of the nest; but when this was discovered, great exertions were instantly made to re-cover them. By the mouth of the fish the edges of the opening were again drawn together, and other portions torn from their attachments and brought over the orifice, till the ova were again hid from view: and as great force was sometimes necessary to effect this, the fish would thrust its snout into the nest as far as the eyes, and then jerk ​backwards till the object was effected. While thus engaged it would suffer itself to be taken in the hand, but repelled any attack made on the nest, and quitted not its post so long as I remained; and to those nests that were left dry between tide marks, the guardian fish always returned with the returning tide, nor did they quit the post to any great distance till again carried away by the receding tide."
It is right to observe that Mr. Couch, who in his "Illustrations of Instinct," quotes both of the above papers, suspects that the nest, in the latter case, was that of the Shanny (Blennius pholis), and that the Sticklebacks watched it with a very different motive from parental affection. We do not, however, concur in this gentleman's conclusions.
Genus Trigla. (Linn.)
The Gurnards have the head somewhat four-sided, more or less resembling the half of a pyramid divided vertically; hence the profile resembles that of the Surmullets. It is, as has been intimated, defended by long shields, those of the gill-cover and shoulder terminating in a spine or lancet. The body is lengthened, rounded above, with the belly flattened, tapering from the head backwards; clothed with small prickly scales, firmly embedded in the skin, very compactly arranged, and often accompanied by rows of spines placed along the lateral line. There are two dorsal fins, the first short but high, with spinous rays; the second long, with rays flexible at the tips. The pectorals are large, with strong ​rays, and with the membrane often coloured; there are three free rays before the base of each, covered with a fleshy skin, well supplied with nerves. The ventrals are also large, and situated immediately beneath the pectorals. The anal corresponds with the second dorsal. The caudal is slightly lunate, or hollowed at the extremity. Both of the jaws, and the front of the vomer, are furnished with minute, close-set teeth. The gill-opening is large, and the branchiostegous rays are seven.
The swimming-bladder in this genus is rather large, and presents considerable diversity of form. In general it is somewhat heart-shaped, more or less cleft in front, but in the Sapphirine Gurnard, presently to be described, it is triple, the principal sac giving off, on each side, an accessory sac, tapering off to a point behind, but united to, and opening into, the main chamber at the front part. The membranes of which this organ are composed are thick, dense, and leathery.
Notwithstanding this development of the air-vesicle, the Gurnards are ground-fishes. They chiefly haunt the vicinity of the bottom, where they feed on crabs, lobsters, and other crustacea; not, however, confining themselves to these, for they are very voracious.
The Grey Gurnard (Trigla gurnardus, Linn.) seems to affect the surface more than the other species of the genus. On the Atlantic shores of Scotland and Ireland it is not uncommon to see immense shoals of this Crooner, (as it is called on the former coast,) rippling the smooth water as they cut the surface, so as to be readily shot with a fowling piece.
​The principal mode of taking Gurnards is by means of the trawl-net, a long conical net already described, dragged along the bottom after a boat under sail. But the Grey Gurnard is taken on the coast of Ireland, by the fleet-line, like the Mackerel. A writer in the "New Sporting Magazine," who well describes him as "all points and angles," his "huge horny bony head, armed at all points with barbs and thorns," his "tremendous dorsal fin, a natural chevaux de frise, for the hand of the incautious fisherman;" and, as to his habits, as "living perpetually on the surface, and being prodigiously gregarious and voracious beyond all example," says, "I have sailed through them in shoals to which the eye could see no limit, rolling lazily on the water, with the points of the fin projecting over the surface, and swallowing everything which came within view. In the summer months their sole food is the herring-fry; and I have often found them gorged with the miserable little fish to an extent which their size would seem to render absolutely impossible."
"In unhooking the Mackerel there is no difficulty. It is not so, however, with his friend and companion the Gurnard. He is a far more dangerous customer, even, than the Perch, the terror of the inexperienced river angler. The moment your hand touches him,—whisk! up fly the back fin, the thorns of the head, and the whole array of points and barbs with which he so liberally provides you; and it may be that your lacerated fingers will remind you for several days of the necessity for caution in every future attempt. The ordinary method of avoiding this inconvenience,—more serious than might perhaps ​be imagined, has somewhat of cruelty about it. It is to stun the fish by a hard knock against the deck or gunwale of the boat. The fins and thorns are thus erected before the fisher places his hand upon the fish; he sees the danger, and is enabled to keep clear of it. But the end may be attained as securely without recourse to this cruel expedient. Any one who has ever taken a Pike off the hook, will at once perceive the plan. Let the Gurnard be seized with the fingers between the eyes, just as the Pike, and the hand will be secured against all danger."
The word Gurnard is supposed to be derived from the French gronder, to grumble; and to indicate the power, rare among fishes, but possessed by all the species of this genus, of emitting vocal sounds. The common Red Gurnard is termed the Cuckoo, from its uttering a double note like that of our well known woodland bird; another species is named the Piper; and the grey species just alluded to, derives its appellation of Crooner from the provincial word Croon, which signifies a hollow humming sound. The voice is generally heard the instant the fish is taken into the hand, or removed from the water, but the last named species is said to utter its "crooning" as it ploughs the surface with its cleft and prickly muzzle.
Like other bottom fishes, the Gurnards live a long time out of the water.
One of the most common as well as the largest of our species is the Sapphirine Gurnard (Trigla hirundo, Linn.), which owes both its common and its scientific appellation to its large ​pectorals, which resemble wings; and are on their inner or posterior surface of a fine deep blue colour, becoming scarlet near the last ray. All the other fins are tinged with scarlet, more or less distinctly; the caudal and the first dorsal brilliantly. The two dorsals are set in a groove, bounded by two rows of strong and sharp points pointing backwards; this furrow does not extend
beyond the range of the two fins either in front or behind. The bony armour which encases the head, carries several spines; the front part of the orbit of each eye is armed with three small ones; the crown plate ends in a strong broad one on each side; the gill-cover, and the fore-gill-cover each carry one, and there is another stout and strong one pointing backwards, affixed to the ​bone of the shoulder. Besides which, the whole surface of the head is roughened, like a rasp, with minute knobs running in various fantastic lines and curves.
The ground colour of the upper parts is a dull olive; that of the under parts silvery white, the whole tinged with pale red; this latter hue is also distributed about in irregular mottlings, especially along the sides, on the mouth and chin, and on the finger-like pectoral rays. The eyes are large, and golden-yellow. This species attains the length of two feet or more.
The scales are very minute, more or less
angular in their outline, free from prickles: the concentric lines (striæ) are fine, close-set and numerous, and are interrupted by lines of clear ​glassy substance, branching from a central one like the veins of a leaf; these lines correspond with indentations in the outline.
When alive in the water, the Gurnards are described as being very beautiful; the gay hues with which they are generally adorned possessing a glittering brilliancy heightened by the transparency of the element through which they are seen; more particularly in the rays of the sun, when every motion and every turn brings out some new play of colour or flash of radiance.
Family V. Sciænadæ.
(Maigres.)
The Maigres are an extensive Family, including, according to the Prince of Canino's estimate in 1831, two hundred and thirty one species; but now considered by the same Zoologist to contain but one hundred and sixty five. Of this large number, four only are found in the European seas, and two are British. The tropical parts of the Atlantic, including the West Indian Seas, are the great home of the Family; some are found in the Indian Ocean, but scarcely a single species in the Pacific.
In many respects the Maigres resemble the Perches; the operculum is armed with spines, and the pre-operculum is cut into notches like the teeth of a saw: they have strong teeth, but none in either the vomer or the palate, where the Perches are furnished with them; the muzzle is thickened and obtuse; the mouth comparatively small; the back much arched; the tail ​and caudal fin are frequently inclined upwards in a slight degree: and finally, there are in general a few scales on the basal part of the dorsal or dorsals, of which fins, as in the Percadæ, some genera have one much lengthened but continuous, others indented by a depression more or less deep, and others completely divided into two.
Some of the Maigres attain a great size, and some are adorned with rich colours and brilliant metallic reflections; but elegance of form is not, in general, one of their characteristics. Their flesh is highly esteemed for the table.
Genus Sciæna. (Linn.)
The head in this genus is large, and as it were inflated, supported by cavernous bones: there are two separated dorsal fins; the spines of the anal are weak and slender, and that fin is short; the operculum terminates in one or more spines, and the pre-operculum is serrated; but the notches are apt to be effaced by age. There is a single row of strong teeth in each jaw, and a narrow line of small ones in the upper; but none on the vomer or palate: there are seven gill-rays. The whole head is clothed with scales; the two strong bones of the ears are larger than in most other fishes; the chin is not furnished with cirri or beards; the air-bladder is often curiously fringed. The species inhabit the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Indian seas.
The waters that lave our own coasts occasionally produce specimens of a noble Sciæna which attains a length of six feet, and a bulk proportionate. It is the Maigre of the French (Sciæna ​aquila, Cuv. et Val.), but our fishermen call it the Stone Basse, and confound it with another fish of large size, which resembles it, one of the Percadæ.
Mr. Yarrell describes the colour of this rare fish when quite fresh, as a uniform greyish silver, slightly inclining to brown on the back, and lightest on the belly; but the whole body assuming a much darker tint, after it has been kept for a few days. The fins are reddish brown; the first dorsal, the pectorals, and the ventrals, brighter in hue than the others. The second dorsal is twice as long as the first; the caudal is, as it were, cut off with a straight vertical edge.
Many of the Sciænadæ have a similar power to that already mentioned as characterizing the Trigladæ, that of producing vocal sounds. The Maigre’s voice is compared to the purring of a cat, and it utters it not only in the air when removed from the water, but even when swimming considerably beneath the surface. When swimming in shoals, it is said the purring of the Maigre is audible from a depth of twenty fathoms.
​The flesh of such specimens as have from time to time found their way to our markets has been considered good, though rather dry. In the Mediterranean, however, it has been very highly esteemed, from the earliest times, and bears the title of King's fish, from its reputed excellence. "It appears always to have been in great request with epicures; and as, on account of its large size, it was always sold in pieces, the fishermen of Rome were in the habit of presenting the head, which was considered the finest part, as a sort of tribute, to the three local magistrates who acted for the time as conservators of the city."
A curious story is told of the travels and adventures of a Maigre's head that was presented to the magistrates in the pontificate of Sextus X. The conservators offered it as an acceptable present to the Pope's nephew ; by whom it was sent to one of the Cardinals; the latter sent it as a propitiatory offering to a banker to whom he was deeply in debt; and the banker presented it to his mistress. The interest of the story rests chiefly on the ingenuity of a dinner-hunter, who contrives to trace the savoury dish through all its migrations, and succeeds at length in obtaining an invitation to partake of the dainty.
The two hard bones that are lodged in the sides of the head, commonly known as the ear-stones, have been supposed by the vulgar, and by the scientific in former times, to possess medicinal powers. They were called colic-stones; and their virtues as curative of this disorder were supposed to be exercised by being worn round the neck, usually mounted in gold. But then it was indispensable that they should have been received as ​a gift; the fact of payment having been made for them, would, it was pretended, deprive them of all their value. It is to be regretted that superstitions, equally groundless with this, are still common in this enlightened age, and in our own country; diseases being considered removable by the wearing of certain amulets or charms.
The Maigre, as a British fish, is a great rarity; the Mediterranean, especially its northern shore, is its chief resort. In its habits it is somewhat migratory; swimming in small shoals, which shift their quarters from one part of the coast to another, seldom remaining long in a place. The air-bladder is long, and tapers to a point behind; the free edge of the membrane, being cut into irregular fringes all along each side, gives it a singular appearance.
Family VI. Sparidæ.
(Sea-breams.)
In form these fishes somewhat resemble those of the preceding Family, presenting a high, rather oval, vertical outline, of greater depth than thickness. They have but one dorsal, which is never clothed with scales in any degree: the operculum is not spinous, nor is the pre-operculum notched: the muzzle is not thickened, nor are the bones of the skull cavernous; the mouth is not protrusile. In addition to these negative distinctions, it may be added that the jaws are furnished with round fiat grinding teeth, arranged like the stones of a pavement, and often with strong pointed canines in front; the pectoral ​fins are always pointed, and the caudal forked; characters which indicate the power of swift progression through the water.
The colours of the Marine Breams are generally elegant without being showy; silvery grey or pearly white, varied occasionally with gilded or brassy reflections, and flushed with iridescent hues of rose-red, pale blue, green, and yellow, may be considered as characteristic of the Family. The fins, however, are destitute of colour, or are tinged only with dusky-brown.
From the structure of their teeth, it might be inferred that these fishes were predatory, and that their food often presented itself in a form which required great crushing and grinding force. And this is indeed the case, crustacea and mollusca, but especially the latter, affording them the main part of their sustenance; both of these classes comprising animals encased in crusts or shells, often of stone-like hardness. The common Gilt-head (Chrysophrys aurata, Cuv.), for example, is able to crush and grind to powder, with its powerful millstone-like teeth, the thick stony shells of the genera Turbo, Buccinum, and Trochus, the Periwinkles, Whelks, and Tops, of our rocky shores.
The Family is extensive, comprising, according to the latest estimate, two hundred and forty species, of which number nearly one-tenth belong to the European coasts; the rest are distributed over the shores of both hemispheres, their prevalence increasing as we approach the tropics.
In the larger Families of animals it is desirable to have subdivisions of a rank higher than that of genera; and there are always found on ​examination variations of structure, each possessed by a certain number of genera in common, by the selection of which such sub-division may be effected. In treating of the Percadæ, we briefly enumerated the subordinate groups into which that immense Family is divided; we will now indicate those into which Cuvier has distributed the Sparidæ.
1. The Sparina have the jaws set with round flat teeth like paving-stones. Eighty species belong to this group, of which sixteen are European, and five are British.
2. The Denticina have all the teeth conical and pointed, and the front ones hooked. This is the most important division, as regards number, though not the most typical; as it includes one hundred and twenty species, mostly tropical. Four only of these are European, of which one is marked as British, the Four-toothed Sparus, or Toothed Gilthead (Dentex vulgaris, Cuv.) It must, however, be reckoned among the very rarest of native animals, its claim to be so regarded resting on the authority of a single specimen. It fortunately happened that this rarity fell into the hands of Mr. Donovan, from whose "History of British Fishes," we extract the following interesting note of its powers, habits, and uses.
"A more voracious fish is scarcely known; and when we consider its ferocious inclination, and the strength of its formidable canine teeth, we must be fully sensible of the great ability it possesses in attacking other fishes, even of superior size, with advantage. It is asserted, that when taken in the fishermen's nets, it will seize upon the other fishes taken with it, and mangle ​them dreadfully. Being a swift swimmer, it finds abundant prey, and soon attains to a considerable size. Willoughby observes, that small fishes of this species are rarely taken; and the same circumstance has been mentioned by later writers. During the winter it prefers deep waters; but in the spring, or about May, it quits this retreat, and approaches the entrance of great rivers, where it deposits its spawn between the crevices of stones and rocks.
"The fisheries for this kind of Sparus are carried on upon an extensive scale in the warmer parts of Europe. In the estuaries of Dalmatia and the Levant, the capture of this fish is an object of material consideration, both to the inhabitants generally as a wholesome and palatable food when fresh, and to the mercantile interest of those countries as an article of commerce. They prepare the fish, according to ancient custom, by cutting it in pieces, and packing it in barrels with vinegar and spices, in which state it will keep perfectly well for twelve months."
3. The Cantharina contain but a single genus, in which the teeth are numerous, minute, and conical, placed in several rows; those of the outer row larger and more curved than the others. Of this limited group, England possesses one species, the Black Sea-bream (Cantharus lineatus, Mont.), which is by no means uncommon.
4. The Obladina have the foremost range of teeth compressed, placed close together, and armed with a cutting edge, which is more or less notched. This group contains only fifteen species, several of which, found in the Mediterranean, are distinguished by the metallic lustre of their ​appearance, their sides presenting the likeness of silver and burnished steel, in which are imbedded longitudinal parallel bands of gold.
Genus Pagellus. (Cuv.)
The present Genus belongs to the first of the sub-families, mentioned above. It is characterized by the teeth in the front half of the jaws being numerous, close-set, slender, and pointed; those in the rear being rounded molars, disposed in two or three rows, those of the outer row the most powerful. There is but a single dorsal fin, which is lengthened, and composed of both spinous and flexible rays; the pectorals are pointed; the cheeks and gill-covers are covered with scales; the form is deeper than thick; the outline of both the belly and the back is rounded.
The species of the genus Pagellus are common in the Mediterranean, and on the shores of the Atlantic, as far north as Denmark, beyond which they appear to be unknown. Three are found on our own coasts, two of which are rare and accidental visitants, and one is a common fish.
The Common Sea-Bream (Pagellus centrodontus, Cuv.) is about a foot and a half long, six inches deep, and two and a half inches thick; its form is much compressed, its outline both above and below gracefully swelling. The eye is enormous, and this gives it a peculiar appearance; the wide iris is golden or silvery. The hue of the upper parts is reddish-grey, the sides and belly pearly, with faint blue stripes running longitudinally. The dorsal and anal fins are strong and spinous, and are lodged in a singular groove; they ​are brownish; the pectorals, ventrals, and caudal are pale red. There is a blackish spot at the commencement of the lateral line. The sides of
the head gleam in parts like frosted silver, or like the back of a looking-glass newly silvered.
The scales (see the engraving on the following page) generally approach, more or less nearly, to a square form, slightly bulging at the sides; the front, or attached end, scalloped at the edge, and waved in a radiating manner: the hinder, or free end, marked with a number of minute flexible points lying one over the other, most numerous on the scales of the belly. Those of the lateral line have the mucus-tube short but wide. a, represents a scale from the back; b, one from the lateral line; c, one from the belly. The silvery pigment beneath the scales does not come off with the latter when these are detached, ​but remains adhering to the skin, and is with difficulty separated.
SCALES OF SEA-BREAM.
We can add our testimony to that of Mr. Yarrell, with respect to the excellency of this fish, when cooked as he prescribes.
The Sea-bream, or Gilt-head, as it is likewise called, is taken all around the shores of England, but is much more common in the British Channel than either on the east or west coast, and to the Scottish fishermen it is scarcely known. In the London market it is by no means uncommon, in the summer and autumn months. During the prevalence of frosty weather it retreats into deep water, where, as Mr. Yarrell informs us, on the authority of Mr. Couch, it deposits its spawn at the commencement of winter. The young fry, which go by the name of Chads, are about an inch in length in January; by the middle of summer they are five or six inches long, and attain half their full size, or about nine inches, by the end of their first year. The fry of half a year old congregate in immense numbers around the shores in summer, and are caught by anglers with the utmost ease in harbours and from the rocks, since they bite eagerly at any bait. Their food, both in the young and the adult state, comprises both animal and vegetable substances: Mr. ​Couch says, "They devour the green species of sea-weeds, which they bite from the rocks, and for bruising which their teeth are well suited, as are their long and capacious intestines for digesting it." The great strength of their jaws and teeth, however, bespeaks heavier labour assigned to these organs than that of bruising sea-weeds. Colonel Montagu found in the stomach of one, besides some small Sand-launce, the limbs of crabs, and fragments of shells. And in the stomach of one which we lately examined, there were found numbers of bivalve shells, all of one kind, a small grey Tellina, some of which were perfect, but most were broken, crushed, and ground down to a coarse powder by the action of the strong molars.
"In its general habits," says the excellent naturalist, to whom we owe so much of our knowledge of the fishes of the west of England, "the Sea-Bream might be considered a solitary fish; as when they most abound, the assemblage is formed commonly for no other purpose than the pursuit of food. Yet there are exceptions to this; and fishermen inform me of instances in which multitudes are seen congregated at the surface, moving slowly along as if engaged in some important expedition. This happens most frequently over rocky ground in deep water."
Family VII. Mænadæ.
(Mendoles.)
With much in their form and characters that resemble the preceding Family of the Sparidæ, the Mænadæ differ from them in the extreme extensibility, and retractibility of the upper jaw, a peculiarity dependent on the length of the intermaxillary pedicels, which withdraw between the orbits of the eyes. They have teeth in the jaws, which are very fine and close set, resembling the pile of velvet; in general, the palate is toothless. The body is furnished with scales, some of which, very small and delicate, often, but not always, extend upon the dorsal fin; the ventrals are placed beneath the pectorals. Their air-bladder is large, simple, and rounded in front; commonly divided posteriorly into two long horns, which penetrate into the muscles of the tail, on each side of the internal spines of the anal fin.
The four genera which compose this Family, comprising, according to the Prince of Canino, sixty-one species, are thus distributed. Mæna is confined to the Mediterranean; Smaris inhabits the same sea, but less exclusively, a few species being found in the East and in the West Indies; Cæsio is confined to the Indian Ocean and its gulfs; and Gerres spreads itself over all the tropical seas. The Family is of little importance to man; the Common Mendole (Mæna vulgaris, Cuv.) of the Mediterranean, is considered so utterly worthless, that its name in Venice is a ​proverb of vileness, and has passed into the vocabulary of insult. A West Indian species of Gerres is remarkable for the rapidity with which it decomposes, the flesh becoming soft almost immediately after it is dead. Another species of this genus, however (Gerres rhombeus, Cuv.) is esteemed one of the best fishes in Jamaica, where it goes by the name of Stone Basse. This little fish is reported by Mr. Couch to visit the coast of Cornwall, arriving there in considerable numbers, accompanying pieces of floating timber covered with Barnacles. Hence it is probable that these shelled Cirripedes form the favourite food of the Gerres, though M. Cuvier says that he has never found in its stomach anything but the remains of very minute fishes. The species of the genus Smaris, which we shall select to illustrate the Family, are sufficiently esteemed to be the subjects of fisheries of some importance, on the European coasts of the Mediterranean.
Genus Smaris (Cuv.).
The general form is that of a Herring, but rather more lengthened in proportion to the breadth. The mouth is very protrusile; the jaws are furnished with fine slender teeth, but the vomer is toothless. The fins are destitute of scales, except some on the sides of the ventrals; the scales between the ventrals are elongated.
The fishes are called Picarels by the French, but on the coasts and among the isles of Greece they retain their ancient name, slightly modified, marida being only a corruption of Σμαρὶς, the term by which these little fishes were designated ​in ancient times. They frequent the shallows of the shore, especially where the bottom is muddy and weedy; hiding among the marine vegetation, like birds among the bushes, and preying upon small fishes, and the feebler crustacea and mollusca. One species, the commonest of all (Smaris vulgaris, Cuv.), abounds so much at Iviça, one of the Balearic Isles, that according to M. de Laroche, it forms more than half of the whole produce of the fisheries of that island. It bears here the name of jarret. Rondelet tells us that after having been salted, the Picarel is exposed to the action of the air, to make a sort of garum, or sauce. It has been supposed that the appellation of Picarel, was derived from picoter, to prick or stimulate, alluding to the pungent taste of the sauce so prepared. But M. Duhamel denies the correctness of this; for, according to the observations of a correspondent of his, from Antibes, the Picarel is here confounded with a small species of the Herring genus, called there pyraie. He asserts that it is this fish, and not the true Picarel, which is made into sauce.
The most beautiful species of the genus is that called by the fishermen of Nice, the Kingfisher of the Sea (Smaris alcedo, Cuv.), in allusion to its brilliant tints. This lovely little fish does not commonly exceed seven inches in length. The upper parts are grey with golden reflections; the sides are silvery; the belly tinged with yellowish-green. The head and the gill-covers are marked with blue dashes; the sides are ornamented with four longitudinal lines of spots, of the most radiant ultramarine blue; and on the belly there are six similar rows of a paler tint. ​The dorsal, anal, and caudal fins are of a beautiful yellow, spotted with blue; the pectorals are reddish; the ventrals are pale blue, mottled with
reddish, and bordered with yellow. The Mediterranean coast of France is the locality frequented by this brilliant species, of whose distinctive natural history nothing seems to be recorded.
Family VIII. Chætodontidæ.
(Chætodons.)
We arrive now at a Family of Spinous-finned fishes, particularly interesting on account of the peculiarities of form and of colour that commonly distinguish them, but quite unknown to the cold waters of our northern clime. Cuvier assigned to the Family the appellation of Squamipennes, which is sufficiently expressive of one of their prominent characteristics; the soft, and frequently even the spinous parts of their dorsal and anal fins, being fleshy, and covered with scales, ​by which they are encrusted like the rest of the body; and thus their origin is not readily distinguished. Their form is generally exceedingly thin, but being greatly dilated in the vertical direction, and much shortened longitudinally, their appearance, at least in the typical genera, approaches to that of a piece of money, more or less nearly, that is, round and thin. The teeth are fine, long, and slender, resembling hairs collected in several close rows, like the bristles of a brush. The name Chætodon, by which Linnæus designated the whole Family, signifies bristle-tooth, and describes this peculiarity of dentition. The mouth is small, and usually projects in a prominent and pointed snout. The fins are usually much developed, particularly the dorsal and anal, the former of which sometimes terminates in one or more free filaments of great length and slenderness, as in the genera Heniochus and Zanclus, for example. In the genus Psettus, the body is so drawn out above and below, and the dorsal and anal fins are so pointed and hooked, that the fish when laid on its side, bears no slight resemblance to the figure of a bat with expanded wings. Platax has these fins still more enormously lengthened and pointed, as are, in this genus, the ventrals also.
The beauty of these fishes, which are generally of very small size, never fails to evoke the admiration of those who, with eyes opened to the wonderful works of God, visit the shores of the tropical seas. "In the Chætodons," observes an eloquent naturalist, "the seas of the torrid zone possess animals not less ornamented by the hand of Nature [rather by the hand of Nature's Lord], ​than the countries whose shores are bathed by these waters. If the hot countries of Africa and America have, among their feathered tribes, their souimangas, their humming-birds, their cotingas, and their tanagers, the intermediate seas support
myriads of the finny race still more brilliant, whose scales reflect the tints of metals and precious stones, heightened in effect by spots and bands of a more sombre hue, distributed with a symmetry and variety equally admirable. The ​genus Chætodon has many species in which Nature appears almost to have disported herself by clothing them in the most gaudy manner. Rose, purple, azure, and velvety black, are distributed along the surface of their bodies, in stripes, rings, and ocellated spots on a silver ground; nor are the beauties of these fishes lost to man, or confined to the depths of ocean. They are small, and usually remain near the shore, between the rocks, where there is but little water. Here they are incessantly sporting in the sun-beams, as if for the purpose of displaying the ornaments they have received from Nature."
In almost all the members of this numerous Family, the muzzle projects into a prominent snout; and in some of the genera, as Zanclus, and more especially Chelmon, it is produced into a long narrow tube. In the latter genus, a very curious instinct and endowment attend this peculiarity of structure. In the year 1763, Dr. Schlosser presented to the Royal Society a specimen of the East Indian species, now known as Chelmon rostratus, with some information on its singular habits, which had been given him by Mr. Hommel, governor of the hospital at Batavia, in Java. The fish "frequents the shores and sides of the sea and rivers in search of food; when it spies a fly sitting on the plants that grow in shallow water, it swims on to [within] the distance of four, five, or six feet; and then, with a surprising dexterity, it ejects out of its tubular mouth, a single drop of water, which never fails striking the fly into the sea, when it soon becomes its prey.
​"The relation of this uncommon action of this cunning fish, raised the Governor's curiosity; though it came well attested, yet he was determined, if possible, to be convinced of the truth by ocular demonstration. For that purpose he ordered a large wide tub to be filled with sea-water, then had some of these fish caught, and put into it, which was changed every other day. In a while they seemed reconciled to their confinement; then he determined to try the experiment.
"A slender stick, with a fly pinned on at its end, was placed in such a direction on the side of the vessel as the fish could strike it. It was with inexpressible delight that he daily saw these fish exercising their skill in shooting at the fly with an amazing velocity, and never missed their mark."
As this beautiful little trait of instinctive skill has been often noticed, we have thought that our readers might like to have the very words in which it was originally communicated to the world, and have, therefore, cited the Memoir of Dr. Schlosser. It has since been witnessed by M. Reinwardt, who repeated the facts to M. Valenciennes. According to this naturalist, the Chinese inhabitants of Java are fond of keeping these little fishes in vessels of glass and porcelain for their amusement; frequently suspending an insect by a thread, or fastening it to a stick above the margins.
We think it not improbable that several other species of this Family, especially those in which the muzzle is produced, would be found to possess, and to make use of a similar instinct, if ​experiments were instituted to ascertain the fact. We know that it is the case with one species inhabiting the same seas, but so different in its structure as to form a genus by itself, the Archer of Java (Toxotes jaculator, Cuv.). The mouth is not at all tubular, nor is it produced into a snout, the gape is rather wide, and the lower jaw is longer than the upper, a mouth totally different from that of Chelmon, yet it has exactly the same habit. "It well merits," observe MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes, "the name of Archer, by its singular industry. It knows how to shoot drops of water to a great height, three feet and upwards, and to reach, almost without failure, the insects, or other minute animals, which creep on the aquatic plants, or even on those that grow upon the shore. The inhabitants of many countries of the Indies, especially the Chinese of Java, rear it in their houses to amuse themselves with its manœuvres, and offer it ants or flies on threads and sticks within its reach. We have received from Batavia an individual, the stomach of which was entirely filled with ants."
It is probable that this is by no means the constant habit of procuring food even with this species, but that they more commonly content themselves with the minute animals which, like themselves, inhabit the sea-water. The learned naturalists just quoted, found, on dissecting a second specimen of the Toxotes, that the stomach was filled with small crustacea. We have watched the proceedings of a brilliant little Chætodon on the shores of Jamaica (Ch. striatus),—a tiny creature, no larger than a five-shilling ​piece, marked with alternate bands of black and rich yellow,–as it played about the stones and crevices of the rocks in shallow water, apparently picking its minute prey from their sides. It has the curious and apparently unaccountable habit of butting with the head against the stones, many times in quick succession, with such force as to
rebound for several inches. This same propensity has been noticed in another part of the world; M. Freycinet, in his Voyage round the World, records, that when wading over the coral reef encircling the island of Guam, in the Indian Archipelago, in search of mollusca, he was assailed by a small Chætodon, not bigger than his hand; it butted at his hand, and pertinaciously refused to be driven away. In the former case it might, perhaps, be presumed that the fish was collecting some object or other, animal or vegetable, ​desirable to it, in these repeated strokes; but what could the naked hand of the worthy naturalist yield in the way of food? We must be content to reckon the action among the thousands which we observe in animals, to which our habits, instincts, and reason, afford us no clue whatever.
The colours of these little fishes, we have already said, are beautiful, and the style of coloration is not less striking than the tints themselves. A very common combination in the group is a ground colour of silvery white, frequently tinged with rose or yellow, on which are drawn narrow parallel lines of vivid colour, meeting at a sharp angle on the lateral line, frequently varied by ocellated spots, and transverse bands of black across the body and fins. Not rarely the ground colour is golden yellow, more or less intense, crossed by black bands.
The species are very numerous; one hundred and ninety-four are enumerated by the Prince of Canino as belonging to the Family, of which one hundred and fifty are of the typical form. They swarm in the warm seas, all round the globe, but, as far as we know, only in the vicinity of land. The reefs of coral with which the shores, both of the islands and continents in the equatorial regions, are girt, are the favourite resorts of these painted little fishes. Not a single species of the typical Chætodons is found so far north as Europe; there is, however, one belonging to the more aberrant genera, closely allied to the Archer (Toxotes), whose occasional capture on these coasts warrants its enumeration among British Fishes: with a notice of its generic and specific characters we close our account of the Family.
Genus Brama. (Cuv.)
In this genus the body is compressed and deep, but less so than in the typical genera of the Family; viewed laterally the form is ovate, becoming very narrow at the tail; the forehead nearly vertical. There is but one dorsal, which is long, with the fore part high and pointed; the anal is similarly shaped; the membranes of both these fins are partially covered with scales: the caudal is very high and formed like a narrow crescent. The jaws and palate are furnished with slender teeth, curved inwards; two in front are sometimes more lengthened than the rest.
There is much in the form of this fish, in the shape and position of its fins, and particularly in its high crescentic caudal, as well as in its rich metallic hues, that resembles the pelagic forms of the great Mackerel Family, with which Prince Bonaparte associates it. The scales on the vertical fins induced Cuvier and Yarrell to place it among the Chætodons. Other naturalists, as Pennant, Donovan, and Montagu, have considered it as a Sparus; and the common names of the only species, Ray's Gilthead, and Ray's Sea-Bream, indicate such a degree of resemblance to the Sparidæ as warrants their opinion. We may safely consider the genus as closely linking together these three important Families.
The single species just named, (Brama Raii, Cuv.), itself constituting the whole genus, derives its specific appellation from our illustrious countryman, John Ray, whose name was conferred on it by his friend and fellow-labourer, Willoughby.
​Mr. Yarrell describes it as not particularly rare on our shores, enumerating the Frith of Clyde, the coast of Argyle, the Frith of Forth, and St. Andrews, as localities in Scotland, where it has been taken; and, in England, Berwick Bay, the mouth of the Tees, the coast of Devon, and that of Cornwall; as well as at Swansea in Wales, and at Belfast in Ireland. It occurs also all along the western shores of Europe, as far north as Norway, and is abundant in the Mediterranean.
Ray’s Sea-Bream attains a length of thirty
inches, and a height, including the fins, of about half as much. The eye is large, with the iris darker than the pupil; the back is very dark blue; the upper part of the head coppery-brown, with a band of blue across the forehead; the sides and belly are silvery, mingled with coppery and lake-pink hues on the upper parts, and marked with irregular dusky stripes on the sides; the dorsal and anal fins, being scaled, shine like burnished silver.
​Nothing is recorded of the habits of this fish; but its flesh is said to be as excellent, as its appearance is brilliant.
Family IX. Scombridæ.
(Mackerels.)
This is a very important Family, not only on account of the number of species included in it, which is very great, but also because of the value of many of them as food; the great abundance of some, and their gregarious habits, rendering them suitable subjects for extensive fisheries. The body is commonly ovate, with a tendency to compression, sometimes becoming very thin and high; the scales are remarkably small, sometimes almost invisible; the bones of the head have only the ordinary development, and the gill-covers are not armed with spinous projections. The body is smooth, but the back is often armed with prickles; the fins are strongly developed, and indicate the power of swimming to be possessed in a high degree; the pectorals are generally long, narrow, and pointed; there are two dorsals, the first containing bony rays, which are often greatly lengthened; the second composed of soft rays, and frequently divided into a number of small finlets, as is also the anal; the caudal is in general greatly produced vertically, and deeply forked.
The Family before us is one of the most extensive in the whole Class; in this respect it is exceeded only by the Carps and the Perches, and just equalled by the Wrasses. In Prince ​Bonaparte's recent Conspectus, four hundred and nineteen species are assigned to the Family, as we shall consider it, including the Sword-fishes and the Dorados, of which that zoologist constitutes separate Families. The whole of this vast assemblage are marine, (with the exception of one or two obscure species inhabiting the Asiatic rivers), and many of them properly pelagic, roving the ocean far from land. They are found in all seas.
We shall enumerate the characters of the subordinate groups, or sub-families, into which this great host is distributed, and notice a few particulars of the most interesting species. These groups are six in number.
1. Scombrina. The body is rather lengthened than oval, smooth, clothed with minute scales; two dorsal fins are present, the second as well as the anal cut, for the greater part of its length, into small equidistant finlets, reaching to the caudal; the caudal is very high and deeply forked; the jaws are nearly equal in length, not furnished with fleshy lips. Between one sixth and one seventh of the total number of species in the Family are contained in this section, which are scattered over the whole ocean. Besides our beautiful and valuable Mackerel, of which we shall presently speak, we find placed here the Genus Thynnus, (Cuv.) including the swift, vigorous, warm-blooded Bonitos of the tropics, the pursuers of the little Flying-fishes, and the noble Tunny of the Mediterranean. Specimens of all these are occasionally taken on the British shores.
The flesh of the Tunny (Thynnus vulgaris, Cuv.) is firm, wholesome, and highly esteemed; and as the fish attains the length of from fifteen ​to eighteen feet and a correspondent bulk, and usually swims in large shoals, ranging near the shore, the pursuit of the species forms one of the most valuable fisheries of the south of Europe. The circumstances attending its capture, as recorded by MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes, are so interesting that we make no apology for presenting them to our readers. These fishes are taken in two principal modes. In the one, whenever a sentinel, posted on an eminence for the purpose, has indicated to the fishermen that the Tunnies are coming, and has shown the direction of their approach, a number of boats set off under the command of a captain, and having arranged themselves in a semicircle, unite their nets to form a common enclosure. The Tunnies, alarmed, huddle together in closer array, while the line of nets being rapidly lengthened by additions at each end, gradually drives the shoal more and more in shore. At length, when the fishes have been forced so near the land, that the water is only a few fathoms deep, the fishermen cast a large net terminating in a lengthened conical pocket; this they presently haul on shore inclosing the whole shoal of fishes. The largest are killed while in the water, with poles and gaffs, the small ones are carried up to the beach in the fishermen's arms. Fifteen tons' weight of Tunnies are sometimes taken at a single haul in this manner, on the coast of Languedoc.
The other mode of fishing is with a complex apparatus of nets, called by the French the madrague, by the Italians, the tonnaro. It is an expensive afiair, consisting of a double row of large long nets, made to hang vertically in the water by ​means of corks along the top, and weights along the bottom: these are moored with anchors so as to form an enclosure parallel to the shore, but at some distance from it, extending sometimes to the length of a mile. The long narrow enclosure is then formed into chambers, by means of cross nets hung from side to side in a similar manner, but all communicating with each other by narrow openings, or, as we may call them, doors. About the middle of the line a net is hung transversely from the inner side reaching to the shore, and thus closing the passage.
It is the habit of the Tunnies to swim very close to the land; therefore, when in their rovings they come to this part of the coast, they pass between the nets and the shore, until they find their further way stopped by the long net last mentioned, hanging right across their course. Ranging along by its side in the seaward direction, they find the opening leading into the first chamber of the enclosure; they enter it, and find themselves surrounded by nets, except at one point, through which they enter into the second chamber. Precautions are taken to prevent their return, and they are driven from one compartment to another, until they reach the last, which is called the chamber of death. Beneath this, near the bottom, there is a net stretched horizontally, which can be elevated to any level at pleasure. The fishermen, having assembled in boats, bring the Tunnies, by means of this horizontal net, to the surface, and the slaughter commences. The fishes are killed with poles, boathooks, and similar weapons.
The whole proceeding forms an imposing ​spectacle, and never fails to attract a great number of interested spectators; while it is at the same time one of the principal amusements of the more opulent inhabitants of Sicily, and one of the most important branches of the commerce of that beautiful island. Louis XIII., who was present at a tunny-capture of this kind at Marseilles, was often afterwards heard to declare that nothing in his whole progress through the southern parts of his dominions had so entertained him as the Madrague of Morgion.
2. Xiphiana. These have most of the characters of the preceding group, but the bones of the upper jaw are greatly lengthened, so as to form a long straight sword, with sharp edges. The gills are not divided into a multitude of filaments, resembling a comb, as in most other fishes, but consist of two large parallel laminæ on each side, with a netted surface. The ventral fins are either wanting, or consist of one or two inflexible bones. There is, properly speaking, only one dorsal, which is high and long; but the middle part becomes so worn away in the course of growth, that only the two extremities are left in old specimens, looking like two dorsals. Six species are enumerated in this group, constituting no fewer than five genera; they are all fishes of large size, familiarly known as Sword-fishes, and range the oceans and great inland seas, all round the globe, from the equator to the polar regions.
One species of this sub-family, the common Sword-fish, (Xiphias gladius, Linn.) has been rather frequently caught on our own coasts; and there is an instance on record of a blow from the formidable weapon of one having been fatal to ​a man while bathing in the Severn. It is by no means an uncommon thing for this great and powerful fish to bury his weapon in the timbers of a ship, and perhaps some of the cases in which ships never heard of, and supposed to have gone down in stress of weather, may have been owing to an accident of this sort. It is probable, however, that such an encounter is, in most cases, fatal to the fish, for to pull out the sword from nine inches or more of solid timber, would need a greater effort than to drive it in, and would require that force to be exerted under most disadvantageous conditions. For to give the blow, the animal is able to bring an impetus acquired by the exercise of his utmost powers of swimming, but to dislodge his firmly inserted brand, he must exert a backward force, for which his fins are but feebly adapted, and without the advantage of any accumulated impetus. How great a force is required to perform the terrible feat we learn from the report of the shipwrights, who examined the bottom of H.M.S. Leopard, which, on her return from a tropical cruise in 1725, was found to have the weapon of a Sword-fish imbedded in her timbers. They declared that to drive an iron pin of the same size and form to the same depth, it would require eight or nine strokes of a hammer of twenty-eight pounds weight. How mighty then must have been the muscular power of this fish, which had been able to perform such a feat at a single stroke! What adds to our admiration is that from the position in which the sword had penetrated, from the stern towards the bow, it was evident that the fish had followed the ship when under sail; so that the whole way of the ​vessel through the water must be deducted from the force exerted by the powerful animal. The weapon in this case had penetrated through one inch of sheathing, three inches of planking, and four inches and a half of the solid timber.
The Sword-fish is the furious enemy of the Whales, including the northern species and the Cachalot; and many accounts relate the rage and energy with which the armed warrior of the seas attacks his gigantic foe, and seeks to bury his weapon in his mighty sides. And in this animosity a motive has been sought for the suicidal assaults already mentioned, the Sword-fish mistaking the hull of the ship, a huge dark body moving through the water, for his enemy, and darting upon it with blind indiscriminating fury. It may be so: but Cuvier mentions a little fact, with which these attacks may not be unconnected. "Notwithstanding its formidable weapon, its great strength, and its almost incredible celerity, a small crustaceous animal penetrates the flesh of the Sword-fish, and sometimes so torments it that it dashes itself on the shore with mortal violence."
3. Centronotina. The form is oblong, or sometimes lengthened and slender; the fore part of the dorsal is superseded by a number of small free spines; the ventrals are present and perfect; the body is covered with very small scales. Seventy species are reckoned to belong to this group, which ranges over all seas. The most worthy of notice is the beautiful little Pilot-fish (Nancrates ductor, Linn.), so called because of its constant attendance on Sharks, as well as on ships, a propensity as unaccountable as it is interesting. The fact is indubitable; we have ourselves witnessed ​it in both of its phases. In the warmer parts of the Atlantic we have frequently watched with delight, some two or three of these little fishes, playing under the stern from day to day, attending the ship on her course through many degrees of longitude; always conspicuous in their livery of dark blue bands across a silvery-grey ground, as they turned hither and thither, and hurried to and fro in the "dead-water" between the rudder and the ship's counter, sometimes shooting out a yard or two after some swimming atom, and then darting back to the favourite corner. The singularly unequal friendship subsisting between this little fish and the terrible White Shark we have also many times observed, and never without astonishment and admiration. Once, during a long calm, in a voyage to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as both before and after its prevalence, these hateful fishes were perpetually stealing round the ship; but we do not recollect ever having seen a Shark of any considerable size, without one or more of these Pilots attending him. This little creature generally keeps his station just over the head of the Shark, but sometimes over one of the pectoral fins, within an inch or two of his body, turning when he turns, stopping when he stops, and never leaving him, except to swim a-head to examine some bait. Having examined it, he instantly returns and resumes his place. It would really appear as if some communication took place between them, for the Shark, who before seemed quite unaware of the proximity of any food, on the return of the Pilot-fish instantly quickens his motion and bustles towards it. But an instance still more ​conclusive is recorded in Griffith's Cuvier, furnished by Colonel Hamilton Smith, and confirmed by his own observations. "Captain Richards, R.N., during his last station in the Mediterranean, saw on a fine day a Blue Shark, which followed the ship, attracted perhaps by a corpse which had been committed to the waves. After some time a shark-hook, baited with pork, was flung out. The Shark, attended by four Pilot-fish, repeatedly approached the bait; and every time that he did so, one of the Pilots preceding him was distinctly seen from the taffrail of the ship to run his snout against the side of the Shark's head to turn it away. After some farther play, the fish swam off in the wake of the vessel, his dorsal fin being long distinctly visible above the water. When he had gone, however, a considerable distance, he suddenly turned round, darted after the vessel, and before the Pilot-fish could overtake him and interpose, snapped at the bait and was taken. In hoisting him up, one of the Pilots was observed to cling to his side until he was half above water, when it fell off. All the Pilot-fishes then swam about a while, as if in search of their friend, with every apparent mark of anxiety and distress, and afterwards darted suddenly down into the depths of the sea. Colonel H. Smith has himself witnessed, with intense curiosity, an event in all respects precisely similar."
Not a few instances are on record of Pilot-fishes having accompanied vessels all the way from the Mediterranean, and even from its remotest parts, until they dropped anchor in a ​British harbour. Five or six such cases are mentioned by Mr. Yarrell. On these visits of courtesy seems to depend the claim of the species to a place among British Fishes.
4. Vomerina. A few genera, rather numerous in species, (which amount, according to Prince Bonaparte, to sixty-five), are grouped together here, distinguished by having the body short, very deep, and very thin; a smooth, satiny skin, destitute of any apparent scales; the rays of the dorsal, anal, and ventrals, often prolonged into slender filaments. The species are chiefly found in the tropical seas, and none are recorded as British, or even European.
5. Zeina, The form in this group is thin, deep, and short, as in the preceding; but the mouth is greatly projectile, and furnished with numerous small teeth. The dorsal is single (in most of the genera) and is not preceded by any free spines. There are about forty species, of which three are marked as British. One of these is the John Doree, (Zeus faber, Linn.) eminent in all ages for the flavour of its flesh. The ancients honoured it with the name of the supreme demon in their mythology, (Ζεὺς, Jupiter), in token of their estimation of it; and in modern times, the prince of epicures, Quin, disdained not to make a journey from Bath to Plymouth for the sole purpose of eating it in perfection. Medieval superstition assigns other honours to this fish: there is a round spot of black on each side in the middle of its yellow body, which is accounted for by the legend which makes the Doree the fish caught by the apostle Peter to pay the tribute shekel, or by the rival story, equally true, ​that it was caught by St. Christopher, while wading through an arm of the sea.
6. Coryphænina. Here also the body is greatly compressed, but it is also lengthened; the body is either destitute of scales, or clothed with such as are very minute; the head forms a sharp edge along its summit; the mouth is small, not protrusile. There is one dorsal extending nearly all along the
back, and furnished throughout with flexible rays; the ventrals are small, or absent. Sixty-seven species are enumerated in this sub-family, chiefly inhabitants of the warmer parts of the ocean, but a beautiful one (Coryphæna hippuris, Linn.) is found in the Mediterranean. Its beauty is extraordinary, especially when beheld in the activity and brilliancy of life, glittering in the crystal ​waters of the southern seas, and flinging back the blaze of a tropical sun. Its long dorsal is sky-blue, with the rays gold coloured; its caudal green; the body is green on the upper parts, mottled with orange, and the under parts shine with the lustre of burnished silver, divided from the green hue by a yellow lateral line.
In the tropical parts of the Atlantic we have been familiar with a species akin to this, but apparently distinct from it. In those waters, especially in the calms that so frequently prevail where the trade-wind ceases, the Coryphenes, or as seamen incorrectly name them, Dolphins, are very common. One is never weary of admiring their beauty. Their form is deep, but thin and somewhat flattened: and their sides are of brilliant pearly white, like polished silver. In small companies of five or six, they usually appear and play around and beneath the ship, sometimes close to the surface, and sometimes at such a depth that the eye can but dimly discern their shadowy outline. When playing at an inconsiderable depth, in their turnings hither and thither, the rays of the sun, reflected from their polished sides, as one or the other is exposed to the light, flash out in sudden gleams, or are interrupted, in a very striking manner. Night and day these interesting creatures are sporting about, apparently insusceptible of weariness. Their motion is very rapid, when their powers are put forth, as in pursuit of the timid little Flying-fish.
In all books of Natural History we see accounts of the fleeting hues which play over the body of the Coryphene in the agonies of death; ​and these are commonly described as equalled in delicacy, brilliancy, and variety only by the colours of the rainbow. "The changing tints of a dying Dolphin," are in every mouth, as a current proverbial phrase. We have had the opportunity of witnessing the death of an Atlantic Coryphene, in which the phenomena displayed were of quite another kind than we had supposed. We had expected that, as it died, opaline flashes would fleet over the skin; but what really occurred was this: when brought out of the water it was silvery-grey, with pearly reflections, but in a few minutes after it had lain on deck, the whole body suddenly changed to a brilliant green, (a permanent, not an iridescent colour,) the back dark, the belly yellower, almost like gold, with blue spots; this was the only change, except that the hue became more dingy after death. Alive, and in their native element, as we have already observed, these fishes are very beautiful; generally appearing (judging from our own observation) in parties of five or six, they play around the ship, sometimes at the surface, and then far down in the clear depths below. When they turn in the water, their backs are dark one moment, and the next gleam like polished silver, or mother-of pearl.
To this group belongs also the Genus Pteraclis, remarkable for the great height of the dorsal and anal fins, as represented on page 55 of this volume.
Such are the groups of the great Mackerel Family, one of the most numerous in species, and most varied in form of the whole Class, and comprising some of the most beautiful of all fishes, ​whether as regards compact gracefulness of form, brilliancy and diversity of colours, or the elegance with which the different hues are arranged, harmonized, or contrasted. Perhaps the whole of the great Class of vertebrate animals which form the subject of this volume, cannot show a more perfect example of elegance and beauty than the Common Mackerel, whose history we shall now proceed to delineate in detail.
Genus Scomber. (Linn.)
The distinguishing characters of the Mackerels proper are the following: The body is spindle-shaped, or swelling in the middle and gracefully tapering to each extremity; it is uniformly covered with small smooth scales, which do not extend to the fins. The extremity of the tail is furnished with two slight ridges on each side. There are two dorsals, remote from each other, the second of which, as well as the anal, is followed by a number of small triangular finlets; the caudal is high, narrow, and crescent-shaped. The gill-covers are not armed with either spines or denticulations; the gill-rays are seven; there is a single row of small conical teeth in each jaw.
Two, if not three species of this restricted genus are taken on the shores of Britain, of which the most abundant is the well-known and valuable Common Mackerel, (Scomber scomber, Linn.), to the beauty of which we have already alluded. It is about fifteen inches in length; the colour of the upper parts is of a brilliant green, varied with rich blue, and crossed by a great number of narrow black bands; these are ​nearly straight in the male, but elegantly waved in the female. The sides and belly are pearly, with iridescent reflections. The transverse bands of the back have given rise to the name by which this beautiful fish is known. Mackerel (maquereau in French) is considered as having been derived from the Latin word macularius spotted.
The sudden appearance of immense hosts of fishes on the coast at regular periods, by which their pursuit and capture in sufficient numbers to constitute fisheries, are facilitated, was formerly little understood; and the older writers had recourse to the hypothesis of long annual migrations of certain species, to account for their ​appearance and disappearance on the various parts of the coast of Europe. Thus Anderson, writing of the Mackerel, says that it "passes the winter in the north; towards the spring it approaches Iceland, Scotland, and Ireland, and enters the Atlantic Ocean, whence one column passes along the coast of Portugal and Spain, and enters the Mediterranean, while the other turns into the British Channel, and appears there in May, on the coasts of France and England; and from thence passes in June along those of Holland and Friesland. This second column having reached in July the coasts of Jutland, detaches a division, which, making the tour of that peninsula, enters the Baltic Sea; and the remainder, passing along the coast of Norway, return to the north."
Facts, however, do not agree with these statements; the appearance of this fish in shoals varies in the times of its occurrence, certainly, at different points on the coast; but does not at all follow the line of succession which a migration would involve. Thus the Mackerel appears on the Cornish shores often in March; on the coasts of Hampshire and Sussex, at the same time, and on the latter frequently in February; while in the bays of Devonshire, though an intermediate locality, they are not plentiful till June. On the French side of the channel, they appear later about Havre and Dieppe than at Dunquerque; which is the reverse of the order followed on our own south-eastern coasts, for little is done in the Mackerel fishery in Suffolk and Norfolk before the latter half of May, two or three months after it has begun on the coast of Sussex and Kent. In Scotland their occurrence is considerably later ​still; as they are said to appear among the Orkney Islands, and in the Frith of Forth about the end of July or the beginning of August.
It is now generally believed that the whole of the phenomena of the seasonal appearance and disappearance of fishes may be accounted for on the principle, now pretty well ascertained, that the vivification of the spawn requires its deposition in situations where the sun's rays can have ready access to it. But this would be impossible if it were deposited on the bottom in considerable depths of water; and hence, these animals have been endowed with instincts, which impel them at the proper period, to resort to the shallows of the coast, where the incumbent stratum of water is not too great to allow the solar light and heat to penetrate to the sand and gravel of the bottom, among which the ova are to find their resting-place.
On this interesting subject we are glad to quote the opinions of one of the most illustrious of ichthyologists. "It does not appear," observes Mr. Yarrell, "to have been sufficiently considered, that, inhabiting a medium, which varied but little either in its temperature or productions, locally,—fishes are removed beyond the influence of the two principal causes which make a temporary change of situation necessary. Independently of the difficulty of tracing the course pursued through so vast an expanse of water, the order of the appearance of the fish at different places on the shores of the temperate and southern parts of Europe is the reverse of that which, according to the theory [of the older naturalists], ought to have happened. It is known that this ​fish is now taken, even on some parts of our own coast, in every month of the year. It is probable that the Mackerel inhabits almost the whole of the European seas; and the law of Nature, which obliges them and many others to visit the shallower water of the shores at a particular season, appears to be one of those wise and bountiful provisions of the Creator, by which, not only is the species perpetuated with the greatest certainty, but a large portion of the parent animals are thus brought within the reach of man; who but for the action of this law, would be deprived of many of those species most valuable to him as food. For the Mackerel, dispersed over the immense surface of the deep, no effective fishery could be carried on; but, approaching the shore as they do, from all directions, and roving along the coast, collected in immense shoals, myriads are caught, which yet form but a very small portion compared with the millions that escape.
"It may be observed, farther, that, as there is scarcely a month throughout the year, in which the fishes of some one or more species are not brought within the reach of man, by the operation of the imperative law of Nature referred to, a constant succession of wholesome food is thus spread before him, which, in the first instance, costs him but little beyond the exercise of his ingenuity and labour to obtain."
It is said of the Char, a beautiful member of the Salmon family inhabiting our mountain lakes, and the fact is cited by the distinguished zoologist last mentioned, in confirmation of this hypothesis, that when it spawns, it is seen in the ​shallow parts of the rocky lakes (in which only it is found), and some of the streams that run into them: it is then taken in abundance; but so soon as the spawning is over, the fishes retire into the deepest parts of the lake, and are but rarely caught.
The principal Mackerel fisheries are on the Devon and Cornwall coasts, the Norfolk and Suffolk coasts, and on those of Kent and Sussex. The London market is principally supplied from the latter. In the French fisheries a great number of the Mackerel taken are salted; and a few are so treated in Cornwall, and in the south and west of Ireland; but in this country, generally, this fish is consumed in a fresh state. It is, however, one of those species which are peculiarly liable to rapid decomposition, in which state it is said to be not only offensive, but scarcely less than poisonous. Hence it is highly expedient that it be transmitted to its final market with the least possible delay. The stringency of our laws against Sunday trading has been relaxed in favour of Mackerel, which, with milk, is the only article permitted to be publicly hawked through the streets of the metropolis on the Lord's day.
On such parts of the Kentish coast as are sufficiently near to the mouth of the Thames, the Mackerel fishing-boats are accompanied by fleet-sailing cutters, which collect the produce of the aggregated hauls as they are brought in, and run up with the wind and tide to Billingsgate, leaving the boats to pursue their fishing. From points farther to the westward, as Hastings and Brighton, it is found more convenient to send the ​produce to London by vans, which travel during the night. The carriages in which the fish are thus conveyed are exempted by law from the post-horse duty. We presume that the extension of railway commerce has materially affected the transmission of fish, as well as of other articles, whose value is impaired by delay. During favourable seasons one hundred thousand Mackerel are brought to Billingsgate every week. At Hastings, ten thousand eight hundred have been
obtained in a single day by four boats; and on the next day seven thousand by two boats. Sixteen boats brought into Lowestoffe a catch of Mackerel worth £5,252, the produce of one day’s fishing, in 1821; and the fishery of that year on ​the whole coast of Suffolk was estimated at £14,000. In 1823, the number of Mackerel taken at Yarmouth was computed at 1,420,000.
The capital employed in the Devon and Cornwall fishery was, some years ago, estimated at £200,000.
Two principal modes of net-fishing are employed for the capture of the Mackerel. The first is by drift-nets. A number of nets, twenty feet wide and twenty fathoms long, are attached by one side, in succession, to a stout rope, called the drift-rope, which is well corked. The boat being at the distance of some leagues from shore, throws overboard the end of the rope, to which is affixed a large buoy. She is then put before the wind, and as the rope runs out over the stern, the successive nets are carried overboard with it, and hang down perpendicularly like a long wall, to the depth of twenty feet from the floating rope. When all is run out, the rope is shifted from the stern to the bows, the sails are taken in, and the boat rides by the rope instead of her cable, which is thus kept taut, and in the line of the wind. The meshes of the nets are made sufficiently large to admit the head of the Mackerel, but no more; so that the fish, swimming against the long wall of nets, are caught by the gill-covers and prevented from advancing or retiring.
After remaining out, commonly, all night, the nets are hauled in by means of a capstan; each net is taken off in turn and its produce secured. A single haul has been known to yield fish of the value of nearly £70.
The second mode is by the ground-seine. "A coil of rope, about two hundred fathoms in length, with ​the net fastened to one end, is tied, at the other, to a post or rock, on the shore. The boat is then rowed to the extremity of the rope, when a pole, fixed there, and leaded heavily at the bottom, is thrown overboard. The rowers from this place make as nearly as possible a semicircle, two men continually and regularly putting the net into the water. When they come to the other end of the net, where there is another leaded pole, they throw that overboard. Another coil of rope, similar to the first, is, by degrees, thrown into the water, as the boatmen make for the shore. The crew now land, and with the assistance of persons stationed there, haul in each end of the net till they come to the two poles. The boat is then again pushed off towards the centre of the net, in order to prevent the more vigorous fish from leaping over the corks. By these means three or four hundred fish are often caught at one haul."
Mr. Couch has described a variation in the use of this net, by which, in deep water, it is cast around a shoal of Mackerel, so as to inclose it, as if with a circular wall: then the bottom being drawn together, it forms a deep and wide bag, out of which the fishes are dipped into the boats. The former mode is, however, the less expensive of the two.
The boats employed in the drift-fishing are carefully built, combining security with speed in a degree, perhaps, not surpassed by those of any other of our fisheries. They are usually about thirty feet in the keel, with great depth of waist, and breadth of beam; built of oak or ash timber, ​and copper-fastened. Great strength is requisite, especially in those employed on the Kentish coast, where the shore is rocky, and heavy shocks are continually sustained, as the boats take the beach.
"It is impossible to see the rich and varied shades of colour of the Mackerel in full perfection, except while it is actually in the water, or immediately after it has been taken. Nothing can be more exquisite than its formation, nothing better calculated to secure ease and rapidity of motion. No bulky mass to impede its natural activity, not an angle to present the slightest obstacle to its motion. Accordingly, the swiftness of the Mackerel is proverbial, outstripping the fastest sailing ship, and even seizing the bait while she is under her greatest way."
A successful mode of capturing Mackerel is called "fishing with the fleet-line," practised in a sailing-boat under a smart breeze. A strong thick line of twenty fathoms or more is provided, and coiled on a reel. In preparing for use, care is necessary to take out "the play," or twist, to avoid tangling afterwards. This is effected by stretching it to its utmost length, and passing a rounded stick along it, one end being left free to untwist. In fishing, the boat must be kept in motion, more or less rapid. In order, therefore, to prevent the line from trailing along the surface, a plummet is attached to its extremity, through the neck of which is passed a piece of whalebone about eight inches long. The object of this is twofold; first, to prevent the whistling noise of the plummet, and secondly, to determine the direction of a finer line, called the snood, ​to which the flies are attached. The weight of the plummet is a matter of some nicety, as on it depends the depth at which the hooks run; the greater the speed the heavier must be the lead, to insure the same depth; a pound and a half is the average weight.
The snood is about twelve feet in length, to carry the hooks clear of the plummet's wake. It is ordinarily formed of fine hemp, but sometimes of silk; a length of gut or weed, such as is employed in Salmon-fishing, may, with advantage, be interposed between the snood and the hook, but this is generally omitted. The bait must be conspicuous; almost anything showy or glittering, a piece of light blue leather, or a strip of scarlet cloth, is frequently successful; but the best is a slice taken from the side of a Mackerel, about two inches in length, and half an inch in breadth at the free end, tapering to the end which is affixed to the hook. A waving, vibratory motion is imparted to this bait, very much resembling that of a small fish.
Some practice is required in order to determine with precision when a fish is hooked. The weight of the lead, and the constant but unequal action of the water upon it, keep up a tremulous motion, that to the inexperienced hand feels very much like the jerking of a fish. Some skill, moreover, is needful in order to strike the fish, even if he have actually touched the bait. The Mackerel is said almost invariably to dart at the hook in a direction across its course. It is, therefore, needful to strike forward when a bite is felt, and after hauling in about a fathom of line to sway it, a moment, gently in the hand. The jerking ​motion, as well as the increased weight, will tell if a fish be hooked.
The author of "Wild Sports of the West" has graphically depicted his own participation in such a fishing, on the wild and tempest-beaten coast of Connaught. "It was evident that the Bay was full of Mackerel. In every direction, and as far as the eye could range, gulls and puffins were collected; and, to judge by their activity and clamour, there appeared ample employment for them among the fry beneath. We immediately bore away for the place where these birds were most numerously congregated; and the lines were scarcely overboard when we found ourselves in the centre of a shoal of Mackerel.
"The hooker [or boat] however, had too much way; we lowered the foresail, double-reefed the mainsail, and then went steadily to work. Directed by the movements of the birds, we followed the Mackerel, tacking or wearing the boat occasionally, when we found that we had overrun the shoal. For two hours we killed those beautiful fish, as fast as the baits could be renewed and the lines hauled in; and when we left off fishing, actually wearied with sport, we found that we had taken above five hundred, including a number of the coarser species, known on this coast by the name of Horse Mackerel.
"There is not on sea or river, always except angling for Salmon, any sport comparable to this delightful amusement; full of life and bustle, everything about it is animated and exhilarating; a brisk breeze, a fair sky, the boat in quick and constant motion, all is calculated to interest and ​excite. He who has experienced the glorious sensations of sailing on the Western Ocean, a bright autumnal sky above, a deep green lucid swell around, a steady breeze, and as much of it as the hooker can stand up to, will estimate the exquisite enjoyment our morning's Mackerel-fishing afforded."
The fishes of this fine Family are predatory and voracious, devouring great numbers of fishes smaller than themselves, which their muscularity and high powers of swimming enable them to overtake and subdue with facility. The Mackerel offers no exception to this character of the Family; it pursues with eagerness the fry of other fishes, and in particular the young of a small species of Clupea, which Mr. Yarrell supposes to be the Sprat.
On our southern coast the Mackerel deposits its spawn in June, which is hatched by the end of the month. The young fry increase rapidly in size, so that by the end of August they are found from four to six inches in length, and by November have attained half their adult growth. About this time they retire into deep-water, and appear no more as fry.
Family X. Cepoladæ.
(Ribbon-fishes.)
The greatly compressed form of the Coryphenes, in which the vertical diameter so greatly exceeds the transverse, and the elongation of some among these, prepare the student for the contemplation of the present Family, in which ​these two characters, thinness and length, are found in so extraordinary a degree, as to suggest the idea of a piece of tape, or ribbon; each of which fabrics has given a name to its members. So gradual indeed, is the transition from the Scombridæ to the Cepoladæ, that certain of the connecting forms have been placed by some naturalists in the one, and by others in the other. Thus Pteraclis, that singular American fish before referred to (see the engraving on page 55), has the compressed silver-plated body of the Ribbon-fishes, with the fins (in excess) of the Coryphenes; and is, by Cuvier, assigned to the latter; by Swainson to the former; while of the Silvery Hair-tails (Trichiurus), and the Scabbard-fishes (Lepidopus) the reverse is true; the French zoologist marshalling them in the ranks of the Ribbon-fishes, the English giving them companionship with the Coryphenes.
The technical characters, as indicated by Cuvier, which belong to this Family, are somewhat vague; being simply the following: "these fishes are long, flattened sidewise, and have very minute scales." Each of these characters, however, we have seen to belong to some of the Scombridæ, only in a rather less extreme degree. Thirty-four species are at present included in the Family; the majority of which have been made known at a comparatively recent period. They are for the most part pelagic in their habits; that is, they rove in the open sea, far from the land. The warmer parts of all the oceans produce them, and not a few are natives of the Mediterranean. Some extend their range into the colder seas of the north, and two or three species are ​occasionally presented to the notice of British naturalists, being found washed up by the violence of the waves on the rocks or beach. Though so limited in number, the fishes of this Family constitute three Sub-families, distinguished principally by the form of the head and mouth.
1. Cepolina. In these the muzzle is short, and the mouth cleft obliquely, so as to open upwards; the body is deepest at the head, and diminishes gradually to the tail, which is furnished with a distinct caudal, though united to the dorsal, as also to the anal, where this last is present. Most of the species are natives of the Mediterranean.
2. Gymnetrina. Here the mouth is small and little cleft; the body is excessively long and thin; the dorsal extends the whole length; the anal is wanting; the pectorals are minute, but the ventrals remarkably developed.
3. Trichiurina. In this group the muzzle is lengthened, the mouth deeply cleft, and armed with strong trenchant teeth, the lower jaw projecting beyond the upper, with a pointed chin. The dorsal is long, but not united with the caudal: the ventrals are wanting, as are, in one genus, the anal, and the caudal also.
"The Ribbon-fishes," remarks Mr. Swainson, who seems to have been personally familiar with not a few species, "although vastly inferior, in point of number, to either of the more typical divisions, is yet one of the greatest interest, since it contains the most singular and extraordinary fishes in creation.… The form of the body, when compared to fishes better known, is more like that of the Eel, the length ​being in the same proportion to the breadth; but then it is generally so much compressed, that these creatures have acquired the popular names of Riband-fish, Lath- or Deal-fish, &c. The body, indeed, is often not thicker, except in its middle, than that of a sword; and, being covered with the richest silver, and of great length, the undulating motion of these fishes in the sea, must be resplendent and beautiful beyond measure. But these, and all the wonders of the mighty deep, are almost hidden from the eye of man. These meteoric fishes appear to live in the greatest depths; and it is only at long intervals, or after a succession of tempests, that a solitary individual is cast upon the shore, with its delicate body torn and mutilated by the element, or by the rocks. Such may be truly said of nearly all the genera contained in the tribe, the only exception being those of Cepola and Ophidium, which have a more compact and robust organization, and habitually frequent the same moderate depths as the generality of edible fish."
Genus Cepola. (Linn.)
The Band-fishes proper are distinguished by having the body moderately lengthened, compressed, very gradually diminishing in height from the head to the tail; the head short, rounded, the mouth opening obliquely upwards; the dorsal and anal fins very long, united to the caudal; all the spines of the dorsal flexible; ​pectorals small, rounded; ventrals small, pointed, situated immediately beneath, or rather before the pectorals, composed of stiff rays, attached by a membrane at their base; teeth prominent, curved, and sharp; stomach and intestines very short, terminating a little way behind the head; air-bladder very long, reaching to the tail.
About nine species of this genus have been described, perhaps, however, not sufficiently distinct from each other, most of which inhabit the Mediterranean. One or two are occasionally seen on the Atlantic shores of Europe, and one species inhabits the Chinese seas. They differ very little in form; the shape of the caudal fin, the number of its component rays, and the position of the pectorals and ventrals with respect to each other,—constituting the distinctions which have been relied on as specific. In colour their resemblance is equally exact; a delicate tint of pink, in some specimens, even of the same species, deepening to a light vermilion, in others fading to a carnation or flesh-colour, is the universal hue, adorned in life with pearly, or silvery, or metallic reflections; the fins are party-coloured in bands.
The Eleven-rayed Band-fish (Cepola rubescens, Linn.) has been found on the shores of this country; numerous specimens having occurred of late years (if indeed all of them were of this species) principally on the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall. Some of these attained the length of twenty inches; all were of the tender hue of pale red, varying in intensity, described above, and some displayed the brilliant colours of the long fins, which Mr. Swainson informs us, from ​his personal observation, in the Mediterranean, adorn these fishes in their living state,–viz., the margin of the fin purple or dark red, the basal
part pink, and the intermediate portion orange or yellow, a combination of tints very ornamental. The caudal has eleven rays, of which the middle one is the longest; its shape is that of a spearhead.
The Band-fish is sometimes taken with the hook, but such a circumstance is rare; and naturalists are in general indebted for their acquaintance with it to the violence of storms. Noticing this fact, Mr. Yarrell makes the following suggestions. “Does their elongated form prevent their swimming with ease in mid-water, and, ​inducing a habit of keeping near the ground, or occasionally seeking cavities among rocks for shelter, thus render them liable to be left dry by the retiring tide, or destroyed by the force of waves dashing them against such opposing substances? The combination of great length with extreme tenuity of body, by diminishing the quantity of muscle, and at the same time preventing its being brought into concentrated action upon a single centre of motion, must necessarily leave them at all times much at the mercy of the currents, amid which they may wriggle or float, but against which they are evidently incapable of swimming with any vigorous effort; by their struggles in the ocean, they cannot fail to be speedily exhausted, and they are rejected by the waves like inanimate matter, upon any coast towards which the winds may have driven them. All observers agree that the tænioid [or ribbon-like] fishes are decidedly pelagic."
According to Mr. Swainson, one species at least of the genus is quite commonly met with on the coasts of Sicily, and is habitually exposed for sale in the fish-shambles of that island. From other sources, however, we learn that the flavour of its flesh is not held in much esteem. M. Risso asserts that on the Mediterranean coasts of France, the Band-fish lives principally among sea-weeds in the vicinity of the shore, feeding on crustaceous and molluscous animals. The statements of these naturalists, therefore, do not seem to confirm the general opinion of the oceanic habits of this Family; or at least imply a less ​exclusive applicability of it to this particular genus. According to the last named authority, the common species has obtained at Nice, the names of Fire-flame and Red-ribbon; the former of which appellations it owes to its glittering appearance, as it shoots, meteor-like, through the water.
The appropriateness of the term Ribbon-fish to this species, is well-shown by an incident recorded in the Magazine of Natural History for 1838. A specimen, which had been obtained on the Irish coast, was sent to Mr. W. Thompson of Belfast, through the post-office. The penny stamp was not at that time introduced, but the fish, though nineteen and a-half inches in length, having been carefully folded up like a ribbon, passed in a franked letter of the ordinary size, and legal weight, viz., less than an ounce.
Family XI. Teuthididæ.
(Spine-tails.)
This is a compact and very natural Family, containing a great number of species, many of which are remarkable for the beauty of their forms, and for the brilliancy of their colours. About eighty species are enumerated, excluding the extensive genus Siganus, placed here by Cuvier, but which seems rather to belong to the Mackerel alliance. They are exclusively natives of the warmer parts of the globe; the tropical seas of both hemispheres, especially those of the East and West Indies, being the chief homes of the Family.
​In form and general appearance the Spine-tails resemble the Chætodons, with which Linnæus associated them. They are marked by the body being short, and greatly compressed; it has been stated, that "the depth of the body, measured from the dorsal to the pectoral fins, is always equal to, and often exceeds, its length from head to tail;" but this is certainly not the case with the most typical forms. There are teeth only in the jaws; these are trenchant and denticulated, like the teeth of a very fine comb: the mouth is small, advanced, but not projectile. The fins are much developed; they are supported by numerous slender rays, and are destitute of scales; the dorsal and anal are long; and the caudal is forked, the points frequently being produced into filaments. But the most remarkable character of these fishes is the presence of moveable spines set on each side of the fleshy part of the tail, the points and edges of which are as sharp as those of lancets. With these weapons they inflict dangerous wounds on the hands of such as handle them incautiously. These lancets have procured for them the familiar name of "Doctors," by which they are generally known to sailors and colonists.
Genus Acanthurus, (Lacep.)
The sides of the tail in this genus are armed each with a single lancet only; the body is oval, covered with minute scales; the mouth very small and projecting; the dorsal is long and undivided, supported, as is also the anal, by numerous rays, of great slenderness, set very ​close together; the caudal is large, forked, or crescent-shaped; the upper division sometimes more developed than the lower; the head is obtuse and high, the profile approaching to vertical.
The fishes of this genus are reckoned among that small number of the Class which feed entirely on vegetable substances: sea-weeds, and such like marine vegetation, that may generally be found fringing the submerged rocks in the tropical seas, afford them an always abundant repast. One result of this diet is, that the flesh, though commonly eaten, has a peculiar flavour, disagreeable to many persons. The intestinal canal, as usual in herbivorous animals, is long and complicated.
We must consider the caudal lancets of these fishes as defensive, rather than offensive, weapons, analogous to the horns of the ruminant Mammalia. They are highly curious; each consists of a curved, flattened spine, lodged in a membranous sheath in the side of the tail, and ordinarily concealed; but capable of being partially elevated, as on a hinge, at the will of the animal, when its acute point and keen edge are found to point backward. They are exceedingly firm in texture, of a hard crystalline substance; and being violently jerked from side to side, by the action of the powerful lateral muscles, they doubtless constitute formidable weapons, and enable the browsing fish effectively to repel any carnivorous foe that may be inclined to attack him in the rear.
We shall illustrate the genus by a species which the inhabitants of Jamaica distinguish as the White Doctor-fish (Acanthurus cæruleus, ​Cuv.); which we here figure and describe from our own observations on specimens newly caught. It attains a total length of about six inches: the body is of a purple hue more or less brilliant; the dorsal, anal, and ventrals are of a rich azure
blue, the two former marked with longitudinal lines of dark brown. The caudal lancets are short, hard, and glassy; and are enclosed in a yellow membranous sheath. This species is common on the coasts of Jamaica and the other Antilles, where it is eaten, but is not much esteemed.
Family XII. Ophiocephalidæ.
(Cell-throats.)
These are fresh-water fishes, all inhabiting with one exception (an African species) the rivers of India. They are chiefly interesting because they possess certain peculiarities of internal structure, which distinguish them from all other fishes, and which are connected with habits and powers no less anomalous. The bones of the throat (or pharynx) are divided into small thin plates more or less numerous; and these form, by their frill-like undulations and contortions, intercepting cells, in which water can be retained, and whence it can flow forth upon the gills and keep them moist for a long time, when the fish is on the dry land. By this structure the members of the Family are enabled to crawl from the rivers and ponds which they usually inhabit, and migrate to others at a distance; or, as some suppose, hide themselves in holes in the muddy banks, during the season of drought, waiting for the return of the periodical rains to restore them to activity. It is affirmed by persons of veracity who have lived long in India, that in ponds which perfectly dry up, the bottom being hard and cracked, fishes are found a few days after the commencement of the rainy season, though no rivers or brooks flow into them. The size of the newly found fishes will scarcely admit the explanation which has been suggested of this phenomenon, viz., that they are just hatched from ova which had been deposited in the mud ​in the previous season; though it is difficult to imagine that perfect fishes can sustain life for several weeks or months without water. The common Hindoos stoutly maintain that they are precipitated from the clouds with the falling rains.
These fishes have, in general, the abdominal cavity very short, the tail commencing near the head, and being much lengthened; the fins are sometimes singularly developed. The genus Ophiocephalus has the body cylindrical and lengthened, with a head much like that of a snake.
Genus Macropodus, (Lacep.)
We find in this small genus an extraordinary development of the fins; the caudal is excessively
large, deeply lunate or forked, larger in fact than in any other known fish. The dorsal and anal have the final soft rays gradually lengthened and terminating in filaments; the ventrals have ​the second ray produced into a long filament, while the others are of the usual size: the anal is longer than the dorsal.
We illustrate the genus by the Elegant Long-fin (Macropodus venustus, Cuv.), a native of the great rivers of India.
Family XIII. Mugilidæ.
(Mullets.)
The well-known fishes of this Family are often spoken of as Grey Mullets, to distinguish them from the Mullidæ, which are frequently mentioned as Red Mullets; though it is perhaps better, as less likely to create confusion of ideas, to use the term Mullets for the one and that of Sur-mullets for the other. The true Mullets then are distinguished by the following characters. The body is oblong, somewhat narrow, more or less cylindrical, clothed with large scales. The head is somewhat depressed, covered with large angular scaly plates; the muzzle is short and obtuse, slightly projecting over the mouth, which is small, transversely cleft, and forming, when closed, an angle, the lower jaw having an eminence in the middle corresponding to a hollow in the upper: the eyes are large and placed near the muzzle. The teeth are very minute, and in some almost imperceptible; there are six gill-rays; the bones of the pharynx are so much developed as to give an angular form to the gullet. There are two dorsals, remote from each other, the first consisting of four strong spinous rays; the ventrals are a little behind the pectorals; the caudal is forked ​or lunate. The stomach terminates in a fleshy gizzard, resembling that of a bird.
The Mullets, according to the Prince of Canino's recent conspectus, amount to eighty known species; but if we include the Atherines, or Sand-Smelts, which Cuvier and Yarrell unite with this group, but of which the Roman zoologist constitutes a separate Family,—we shall have fifty more species. They are widely scattered over the globe, inhabiting both fresh and salt waters. The European species are gregarious, haunting the coasts in large shoals, entering the mouths of rivers at certain seasons, and periodically returning to the sea. Experiments, however, have proved that they will not only live but thrive, when confined to fresh water. Mr. Arnold of Guernsey, having a lake of fresh-water about three acres in extent, put into it marine fishes of various species for trial, among which was the Grey Mullet. Selecting a number of the fry, of about a finger's length, he transferred them to the pond, and found, after a few years, that the Mullet were the most improved of all the sea-fishes that he had introduced. Specimens of these, weighing four pounds, were taken from the pond, and proved fatter, deeper, and heavier, than others of similar length which were taken in the sea.
The Mountain Mullet (Mugil monticola) of Jamaica, and another species that inhabits the fresh-water streams of that island, are found in situations which almost preclude the supposition of their ever visiting the sea.
It is commonly believed that the Mullet is not a carnivorous fish, but that it confines itself to ​oily substances floating on the sea, or to the softer parts of aquatic vegetation. The ancients considered it as the most innocent of fishes, and this opinion has been confirmed by that of one of our best ichthyologists, Mr. Couch. Yet the observations of other naturalists reveal a very different truth. Mr. W. Thompson, the able historian of Irish zoology, has remarked, after an examination of many individuals of the species common in Belfast Bay (apparently Mugil chelo), that they presented many hundred-fold greater destruction of animal life than he had ever witnessed on a similar inspection of the food of any bird or fish. From the stomach of a single individual he took as many univalve and bivalve mollusca as would fill a large sized breakfast cup; so that one of these stomachs might justly be regarded as quite a store-house to a conchologist.
Genus Mugil. (Linn.)
The characters already enumerated as distinguishing the Family may be considered as those of this genus: the head is covered on the top with hard bony plates, on the sides with compact scales, which conceal the divisions of the gill-covers; the pectorals are pointed; the sides of the tail are not armed with projecting ridges.
Two species are common on the coasts of these islands, the Common Grey Mullet (Mugil capito, Cuv.) and the Thick-lipped Mullet (M, chelo, Cuv.) They very closely resemble each other, but are distinguished by small anatomical ​peculiarities in the development of the bones of the head and face. The former is the most familiar species on the south and east coasts of England, the latter on the shores of Scotland and the north
of Ireland. At certain seasons, however, as in the months of September and October, Dr. Parnell has observed M. chelo in great abundance on the Devonshire coast. Both are common in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas.
The Common English Mullet attains a length of eighteen or twenty inches, of which the head is nearly one fourth. The colour of the body is bluish-grey on the upper part, silvery white on the sides, marked with longitudinal dusky lines; pure white on the belly; the membranes of the fins are pellucid-white. The caudal fin is both long and wide.
The habits of this interesting fish have been minutely described by Mr. Couch, and we shall take the liberty of quoting them at length from Mr. Yarrell’s excellent “History of British Fishes.”
​"This fish never goes to a great distance from land, but delights in shallow water, when the weather is warm and fine; at which time it is seen prowling near the margin in search of food, and imprinting a dimple on the placid surface as it snatches beneath any oily substance that may chance to be swimming. It ventures to some distance up rivers, but always returns with the tide. Carew, the Cornish historian, had a pond of salt-water, in which these fish were kept; and he says that, having been accustomed to feed them at a certain place every evening, they became so tame, that a knocking like that of chopping would certainly cause them to assemble. The intelligence this argues may also be inferred from the skill and vigilance this fish displays in avoiding danger, more especially in effecting its escape in circumstances of great peril. When enclosed within a ground-seine, or sweep-net, as soon as the danger is seen, and before the limits of its range are straitened, and when even the end of the net might be passed, it is its common habit to prefer the shorter course, and throw itself over the headline, and so escape; and when one of the company passes, all immediately follow.
"This disposition is so innate in the Grey Mullet, that young ones of minute size may be seen tumbling themselves head over tail in their active exertions to pass the head-line. I have even known a Mullet less than an inch in length, to throw itself repeatedly over the side of a cup in which the water was an inch below the brim.
"Mullets frequently enter by the flood-gates into ​a salt water mill-pool at Looe, which contains about twenty acres; and the larger ones, having looked about for a turn or two, often return by the way they had come. When, however, the return of the tide has closed the gates, and prevented this, though the space within is sufficiently large for pleasure and safety, the idea of constraint and danger sets them on effecting their deliverance. The wall is examined in every part; and when the water is near the summit, efforts are made to throw themselves over, by which they are not uncommonly left on the bank, to their own destruction.
"When, after being surrounded by a net, two or three have made their escape, and the margin of the net has been secured, and elevated above the surface, to render certain the capture of the only remaining one, I have seen the anxious prisoner pass from end to end, examine every mesh, and all the folds that lay on the ground; and at last, concluding that to pass through a mesh, or rend it, afforded the only, though desperate, chance of escape, it has retired to the greatest possible distance, which had not been done before, and rushed at once to that part which was most tightly stretched. It was held, however, by the middle; and conscious that all further effort must be unavailing, it yielded without a further struggle to its fate.
"The Grey Mullet selects food that is soft and fat, or such as has begun to suffer decomposition; in search of which it is often seen thrusting its mouth into the soft mud; and, for selecting it, the lips appear to be furnished with exquisite sensibility of taste. It is, indeed, the only fish ​of which I am able to express my belief that it usually selects for food nothing that has life; although it sometimes swallows the common sandworm. Its good success in escaping the hook commonly proceeds from its care not to swallow a particle of any large or hard substance, to avoid which it repeatedly receives the bait into its mouth, and rejects it; so that when hooked it is in the lips, from which the weight and struggles of the fish often deliver it. It is most readily taken with bait formed of the fat entrails of a fish, or cabbage boiled in broth.
"The Grey Mullets shed their spawn about Midsummer; and in August the young, then an inch long, are seen entering the fresh-water, keeping at some distance above the tide, but retiring as it recedes. The change and rechange from salt water to fresh seems necessary to their health, as I judge from having kept them in glass vessels."
The agility displayed by this fish in escaping from danger, and the sagacity which impels it to put its powers into requisition, were known to the ancients as well as to modern fishermen. The continental fishers often lose a whole shoal in the manner described by Mr. Couch, a single one leaping the net-line, and all the rest following like sheep at a fence-gap. To obviate such a disappointment they use in some parts of the Mediterranean a sort of double net, so formed that the exterior net shall receive those fishes that overleap the interior. Oppian long ago thus celebrated the prowess of this fish:—
"The Mullet, when encircling seines enclose, The fatal threads and treach'rous bosom knows: Instant he rallies all his vigorous powers, And faithful aid of every nerve implores; O'er battlements of cork up-darted flies; And finds from air th' escape that sea denies."
The opinion expressed of the harmless appetite of the Grey Mullet we have already seen reason to qualify; the fact of its being often the prey of the fly-fisher seems also inimical to such a conclusion. It is said to rise freely at the flies used for Trout, and even at the larger and more gaudy flies used for Salmon. Now though these showy temptations from the angler's cabinet are but combinations of hair, feathers, and the like, yet they profess to be imitations of living flies, and the eagerness with which the fish leaps up at the skilful mimicry, sufficiently proves how he would act if the filmy-winged insect itself were dancing on the smooth surface of the stream.
The excellence of the flesh of these fishes is generally acknowledged, and they are in considerable request for the table; they are in the best condition about the end of August. In the south of Europe a kind of caviare is made from the roe of the Grey Mullet. It is prepared in the following manner: the fish is opened, the roes taken out, washed, and salted. After having lain in salt for a few hours, they are subjected to pressure between boards, that the water may be expressed. They are then washed in weak brine, and exposed to the rays of the sun. As the operation takes place in summer, when the roe is just ready for deposition, the heat of the weather is sufficient to dry the caviare fit for the market in ten or fifteen days.
​Mullet swim in large shoals, roving from place to place, near the surface of the sea. When the fishermen perceive an unusual rippling of the water, they recognise in it a shoal of fishes; and if it have a peculiar blue appearance, they know the shoal to be Mullet. They are chiefly caught with the seine. Large quantities are sometimes taken. Mr. Thompson states that on the 1st of May 1838, seven hundred weight of these fishes were caught at a single draught, and on the same night, nine hundred-weight were secured by the crew of another boat. Mr. Couch has heard of two tons' weight being taken at one time. All of these statements refer to the Thick-lipped Mullet. A Mullet is considered large if it weigh five or six pounds; but ten or twelve pounds are sometimes attained, and one is mentioned by Mr. Thompson, which weighed fourteen pounds and three-quarters.
Family XIV. Gobiadæ.
(Gobies and Blennies.)
This is a vast assemblage of small and unimportant fishes, scarcely any of which are of the least value to man, and of which the great majority possess little beauty to recommend them to notice. Some of them, however, are distinguished by peculiarities of instinct and of habit, of very high interest to the philosophical student of nature. The Prince of Canino, in his last conspectus, elevates this group into the rank of an Order, including in it the Frog-fishes, which we shall consider next after the present, as well ​as the Suckers and Remoras, which Cuvier places among his Malacopterygii. The number of species contained in the group, if we exclude these three Families, are given by the Italian zoologist as four hundred and eight, a vast increase upon the number recognised in 1831, when, according to the same authority, the Family contained one hundred and seventy three species.
The bodies of these fishes are generally soft to the touch, and invested with a mucous slime; hence the name applied to one of the great subdivisions, the term Blenny being derived from the Greek Βλεννα, signifying mucus; and the provincial appellations of some of the species, as Butter-fishes, &c., allude to the same peculiarity.
The Gobiadæ have either one lengthened dorsal or two: the rays which are spinous are so in a less degree than in any other tribe of this Order, being remarkable for slenderness and flexibility. Few, if any, of this species have robust rigid rays in any of the fins. The ventrals manifest peculiarities of structure: they either consist of two or three small rays, or are enveloped in a thick skin, or are so united as to make a funnel-shaped cup, or are totally wanting. In general these fins are situated in front of the line of the pectorals. All the species have a long uniform, intestinal canal, destitute of cæca; the air-bladder is generally wanting.
The genera are widely scattered; they are found in all the seas of both hemispheres, from the polar oceans to the equator; one genus is confined to the Indian coast, another to the Molucca Isles, and another to the Sea of Kamschatka: ​others inhabit rivers, some are found only in the fresh-water marshes of tropical countries, and one genus is peculiar to the lake of Baikal, that great Alpine sea of fresh water that lies embosomed among the mountains in the very heart of Asia.
There are three well-marked sub-families of the Gobiadæ, which are thus discriminated.
1. Blennina. The ventrals in this group are very small and thick, consisting of not more than two or three cylindrical rays each, enveloped in the common skin: the head is thick, fat, and obtuse; the lips are thick and fleshy. The body is compressed and lengthened, clothed with minute scales, and enveloped in an unctuous slime. There is one long dorsal, composed almost entirely of unjointed, but flexible rays. About one hundred and seventy species are contained in this sub-family, of which eight are natives of our own seas: the rest are spread over the fresh and salt waters of the countries that border the Atlantic, almost exclusively. Mr. Swainson indeed says, "it appears that this Family is distributed over every part of the world but Asia; or at least it is a singular fact, that in the two best works we yet possess upon the fishes of India, not one species has been recorded." But he has overlooked Salarias, Cirrhibarba, and Opistognathus, which are all Indian genera. The Blennies are almost all fishes of very small size and insignificant appearance, rarely exceeding a few inches in length. To this statement, however, there is one exception, the Wolf-fish, or Sea-cat (Anarrhichas lupus, Linn.), of the northern seas, which is of no infrequent occurrence on the Scottish coasts. This ​is a truly formidable creature, attaining the length of seven feet, and its hideous, broad, cat-like face, and its wide grinning mouth, bristling with stout sharp teeth, give it a most revolting aspect, while it is endowed with a strength and a ferocity conformable to its appearance. "It is remarkably strong, very active, and equally ready to defend itself or attack an enemy. It often enters the fishermen's nets for the purpose of plundering them of the entangled fish; and when the fishermen attack it, and it cannot dart through the net, it fights like a lion. They maul it with hand-spikes, spars, and such heavy timber as they may have in the boats; but even when it is landed, and apparently dead, they are not quite safe from its bite." Its teeth resemble the canines and molars of quadrupeds, and their strength is so great as to break down and crush the hardest shells, and even stones. The flesh is excellent, yet such is the prejudice with which its ferocious face and long slimy body are viewed, that the common people turn from it with disgust.
2. Gobiana. These are remarkable for having the ventral fins fully developed, and united, either for their whole length, or at their bases, into a single hollow disk, shaped more or less like a funnel, analogous to that of the soft-finned Cyclopteridæ, formed in the same manner, and applicable to the same use, that of a sucker, whereby they affix themselves to rocks and other substances. The rays of the dorsal (of which there is either one or two) are flexible. The gill-aperture is small, and these fishes can in consequence live a long time out of the water. Some of these ​are viviparous, as we shall presently see of the Blennies.
3. Callionymina. Here the ventrals are separate, larger than the pectorals, and placed far forward under the throat. There are two dorsals, sometimes much elevated. The head is oblong, flattened, with the eyes looking upwards, and with a very small hole on each side of the nape, for the gill-opening. They much resemble the Gurnards in shape and aspect; they are small fishes with a smooth skin, covered with slime, but often adorned with brilliant colours. The mouth is small and very protractile, and the jaws are studded with small, thickly-set teeth.
Two species of this group are found on the British shores, called Dragonets. One of these, the Gemmeous Dragonet, (Callionymus lyra, Linn.), is a little fish of unusual brilliancy. The body is yellow of various tints, with the head and sides marked with spots, dashes, and lines of sapphire-blue: the dorsal-fins are pale brown, crossed by several bands of black. All the fins are very large, but the two dorsals in particular are elevated in the form of high sails, and the first is tall, slender, and curved like a crescent.
To this group is assigned that singular fish, which has been already alluded to as inhabiting Lake Baikal, (Comephorus Baicalensis, Pall.) While agreeing, in many points with the other species, there are some important ones in which it differs, particularly in the total absence of ventral fins. Pallas's account represents it as varying from four to six inches in length, with a broad depressed head, and a soft unctuous body. ​Indeed, except the head, a very thin back-bone, the skin, and the fins, the whole fish seems to be composed of solid fat, which melts over the fire into very fine train-oil, which may be used nearly like olive-oil. What renders this fish most remarkable is the circumstance that it had become known to the fishermen of Lake Baikal for the first time, only five years before the visit of Pallas, and that, in 1770 and 1771, it made its appearance in such immense numbers, that the dead fishes in some places, and particularly near the mouth of the Bargusin, covered the shores to the depth of several feet. In 1772 it had again become so rare that Pallas and Georgi had some difficulty in procuring a few specimens. Pallas expresses his opinion that this fish generally lives near the bottom of the lake, in the greatest depths, and that it was carried to the surface, in the above-named years, by some draughts of gas or air; but, being here out of its element, languished and died; for the fishes were invariably taken out either actually dead, or in a very languid state. The oil is sometimes obtained from the flesh of these fishes by subjecting them to pressure instead of heat; it is of considerable value, and, on being sent to the markets of China, finds a ready sale.
Genus Blennius. (Linn.)
In this numerous genus the mouth is small, with teeth long, slender, conical, equal, and closely-set, arranged in a single row, generally with a canine on each side: the head is thick and obtuse, the muzzle short, the profile nearly vertical. ​The dorsal is generally emarginate, or interrupted in its outline near the middle. Most of the species are furnished with a fringed appendage over each eye, and some have another on each temple. The intestines are wide and short.
These little fishes live in small troops, in the shallow pools and channels among the rocks of the coast, swimming and leaping to and fro with much agility. Their smooth lubricated skin, and general softness of flesh have been already adverted to. They are abundant enough, but their minute size renders them unworthy of attention, and in this country, we believe, they are never cooked; in Italy, however, they are fried in numbers, like sprats in England, and eaten by the poorer classes. They are said to feed on small crustacea and other animals, which they obtain from among the weeds in which they hide. Mr. Couch found in the stomach of one various bivalve shells, parts of a star-fish, the common jointed coralline, and brown sea-weed.
Cuvier states that many of the Blennies are viviparous, and though we are not aware that this is the case with any of the British species of the restricted genus before us, we have one of a genus closely allied, which bears the title of Viviparous Blenny (Zoarces viviparus, Cuv.) from this remarkable habit. It is not uncommon on the rocky shores of Scotland, and is occasionally brought, though by no means of inviting appearance, to the Edinburgh market. The female produces her young alive and fully formed, but varying in size, as it appears, (though this circumstance is certainly strange,) according to ​her own dimensions. Mr. Yarrell obtained a specimen seven inches long, full of young ready for birth, which were one inch and a half long. Mr. Neill, on the other hand, observed in the market at Edinburgh, a female fifteen inches in length, from which several dozens of living young escaped; and these were from four to five inches long. Mr. Low, in his Fauna of the Orkney Islands, observes, that when the fact of the viviparous habit of this fish first fell under his notice, he put a number of the small fry into a tumbler of sea-water, in which he kept them alive for many days, changing the water at every tide. They grew considerably larger, and continued very lively, until one hot day, when, unfortunately forgetting to provide them with a fresh supply of water, they died to the very last fish.
The most common of our Blennies is the Shanny (Blennius pholis, Linn.), sometimes called the Smooth Shan, an epithet probably alluding to the absence of those fringed appendages to the head with which all our other true Blennies are furnished. Its form will be perceived from ​the above engraving: in colour it is very variable; generally some shade of brown prevails, from plain drab, or dull wood-brown, to reddish-brown, usually darker above than below, and frequently mottled on the sides.
The habits of this fish, as far as recorded, seem generally those common to the genus. Its want of an air-bladder compels it to live for the most part at the bottom, usually selecting some piece of rock as its home, about which it plays, and under which it hides when danger approaches. At the recess of the tide, according to Mr. Couch's observations, the larger individuals, that cannot find concealment in pools or beneath the stones, quit the water, and by means of their pectorals creep into holes, rarely more than one in each, where, lying with the head pointing outward, they patiently wait the return of the tide to set them at liberty. Should they be alarmed when thus watching, they retreat backward to the bottom of their caverns. The observant zoologist, who records these facts, infers from them that the Shanny is retentive of life, in further proof of which he mentions that he has known it to continue lively after a confinement of thirty hours in a dry box; though immersion in fresh water would be presently fatal to it.
Colonel Montagu has also remarked on the Shanny's tenacity of life; stating that it will live out of water for many days in a damp place, especially if put into fresh grass or moss moistened with sea-water, and presuming that with a little attention it might be kept alive in this way for several weeks.
In our account of the habits of the Trigladæ, ​we were led to speak of the nest-making instinct of a species of Stickleback, and extracted some particulars from a communication of great interest made to the Royal Institution of Cornwall. In the same paper the author gave an account of two other fish-nests, one of which was found to belong to the present species. "It may perhaps be doubted whether the term nest is strictly applicable to this, as the fish merely makes use of a natural cavity in the rock, in which the ova are deposited, and remain adherent; but as it shows a deviation from what has been considered as the usual mode of spawning in fish, it may be briefly noticed. The cavities selected are almost always nearer the low than high watermark; they have generally rather narrow openings, and the roofs are smooth, or are at least not much broken by fissures. On the roofs and sides of such cavities the ova are deposited, and thickly arranged, looking as if they were vaulted with a pavement of round stones. As the ova are of a beautiful and bright amber-colour, with a highly polished surface, they have a very brilliant appearance as the light falls upon them in their dark recess. They are semi-circular in form, and about one-tenth of an inch in diameter. Having succeeded in hatching them, I proved them to belong to the Common Shanny (Blennius pholis). This opinion of their character has been repeatedly confirmed, as it is the habit of this fish to retire beneath stones, or to crevices of the rock, during the recess of the tide, where they remain dry until the sea returns. By enlarging the openings of the cavities, I have generally succeeded in capturing the adult animal at the ​farthest part of the chamber, and on one occasion found it depositing the ova."
We have already (see p. 24) mentioned the Phycis (Φυχίς) of Aristotle, a Mediterranean species of this Family, as exhibiting a parallelism of instinct to the above, forming a nest of sea-weeds, in which the spawn is deposited, and the young are tended by the parent fishes.
Family XV. Lophiadæ.
(Frog-fishes.)
So exclusively are fishes in general inhabitants of the water, that it excites our surprise and admiration to see any species emerging from that element, and voluntarily taking to the earth or to the air. Among the Mammalia, there is one extensive Order, which is aërial, that of the Bats; and one which is exclusively aquatic, that of the Whales and Dolphins; while there are some members of the other Orders, which, in a less degree, emulate the habits of these respectively, as the volant Lemurs, Squirrels, and Petauri, on the one hand, and on the other the aquatic Shrews, the Otters, the Seals, and the Manatees. So among Birds, the terrestrial Ostriches, and allied forms, and the swimming and diving Penguins, are well-known deviations from the characteristic habits of their Class, and representatives of beasts and fishes. Reptiles again exhibit almost as many aquatic as terrestrial types; and not a few are arboreal, if not aërial, such as the Iguanas, the Anoles, the Dragons, the Chameleons, the Tree-snakes, and the Tree-frogs. But among ​fishes, the law which assigns one sphere of action to the Class, is much more uniform in its operation, admitting of scarcely any exception.
This law is not, however, quite universal: there are a few fishes which invade the domain of the birds, as the proper Flying-fishes (Exocœtus), hereafter to be noticed, and some species (Dactylopterus) in the Family of the Gurnards; and in the Lophiadæ, the Family which we have now to describe, a still rarer aberration of habit is found in fishes which are enabled to leave the water, and crawl about on land, for hours, or even days
BONES OF PECTORAL FIN OF LOPHIUS.
together, thus emulating the terrestrial manners of quadrupeds.
To enable them to do this, two peculiarities of structure have been conferred upon them: the one modifying the organs of motion, the other those of respiration. The pectoral and the ventral fins in fishes correspond with the limbs of other vertebrate animals, the former representing the arms, fore-legs or wings, the latter the hinder extremities. And this analogy, which is structural, is not at all affected by the relative position of these members, even though the ventrals should be, as in the Family before us, situated ​considerably in advance of the pectorals. These latter then, representing the fore-legs of quadrupeds, are in the Frog-fishes so formed as to bear no slight resemblance, both in form and function, to feet. The bones of the wrist on which the fin is jointed are greatly lengthened, and projected beyond the skin of the body, and so closely resemble the bones of the fore-arm (the radius and the ulna), as to have been mistaken for them by a distinguished naturalist. The ventrals have a similar structure; and both are palmated in such a manner as to present a resemblance to the webbed foot of an aquatic fowl. The freedom given to the fins by their protrusion and their form enable them to be used as hands and feet; and the facility with which these fishes can crawl by means of their mimic limbs, we have personally witnessed in a little pelagic species of Antennarius, that inhabits the fields of floating weed in the gulf-stream of the northern Atlantic. Over the broad yellow surface of these floating fields, that look like parched meadows, the little Frog-fish crawls and disports itself, pushing aside the tangled stems with its foot-like ventrals, and clambering hither and thither with the energy and freedom of a quadruped.
“fishes,” as Professor Owen observes, “perish when taken out of water, chiefly by the cohesion and desiccation of their fine vascular branchial processes, through which the blood is thereby prevented from passing.” Some fishes, as the Mackerel and Herring, are dead almost in an instant after exposure to the air; others, as the Eel and Flat-fishes, survive a long time: in the former, the gill-openings are enormously large, in the latter, they are very small. “The power of existing long out of water depends chiefly on mechanical modifications for detaining a quantity of that element in the branchial sacs,” and this is readily effected when the gill-aperture is small, for, “if sufficient water can be retained to keep the gill-plates floating, the oxygen which is consumed by the capillary branchial circulation is ​supplied to the water retained in the branchial sac, directly from the air."
Now in the Family before us the gill-rays and the operculum are enveloped in the common skin, and the aperture through which the breathed water is discharged is a comparatively small hole, situated behind the pectoral. This is small in all the Frog-fishes, but in those species (such as the genus Antennarius just mentioned), which are most addicted to roving out of their native element, the aperture is not only more than usually minute, but is produced into a short tube, which opens above each pectoral fin; and thus the gill-plates can be kept moist for an indefinite period of time.
Beautiful, indeed, are such combinations of structure and of function, such adaptations of part to part, and of organ to organ! They speak of the perfection of wisdom with which the whole of creation is formed; they loudly tell that one infinite Mind planned and executed the whole in all its details. Like the "glorious voice" uttered forth by the rolling spheres of heaven,—the testimony of the meanest fish that hides in the caves of ocean is heard "in Wisdom's ear," declaring—
"The hand that made us is divine."
These fishes have indeed little claim to outward elegance, either of form or colour. They are characterized by a thick, heavy body, sometimes compressed, sometimes depressed, often roughened, granulated, or covered with irregular tubercles, but always destitute of scales; the ​head is large, sometimes enormous; commonly grotesque or hideous in its aspect, armed with singular horn-like processes, or filaments; the eyes small, placed near the top of the head, usually with a vertical direction; the tails small and compressed; all the fins small.
It is to the thick, grotesque shape, naked tuberculous skin, often marbled with sombre colours, great head, and wide gaping mouth–common to these fishes–that they owe the names of Frog-fishes and Toad-fishes, by which they are familiarly distinguished. The accompanying figure of one of the constituent genera of the Family, (Malthe nasuta, Cuv.) will illustrate one of the forms, and show how appropriate is the reptilian designation conferred upon them. Nor is this
at all an unfair specimen of the group; the other genera abound with species in which the aspect, external characters, and colours are so unlike those of ordinary fishes that an unscientific observer would be instantly reminded of a Frog or Toad.
The habits of these fishes have been already in part alluded to; some of the tropical species of Antennarius are so truly amphibious, as to come on shore, and crawl about in the fields for ​two or three days at a time. Like the Diodons, which in some other particulars also they resemble, they have the habit of inflating the body by the inhalation of air until they are as round as a blown bladder; this is supposed to be principally done, when under the excitement of fear or anger. So tenacious of life are they that they have been transported alive from the tropical seas to Holland, where they were sold as high as twelve ducats a-piece.
MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes have, with much labour and skill, distinguished many species of this genus formerly confounded in the Lophius histrio of Bloch. The appropriateness of the appellation histrio, signifying a mountebank, for these fishes, has been misunderstood. It was meant to allude, not to any fancied activity or agility, a quality which they are very far from possessing in general, but to the peculiarity of their coloration, their hues, often diverse and strongly contrasted, being distributed in patches and irregular spots.
Yet some of the species have a certain agility. In the great estuaries that indent the northern coast of Australia, from which the tide ebbs far back in the dry season, leaving them broad flats of mud, there is one of these so abundant, and capable of taking such vigorous leaps, that some voyagers have mistaken them, at first sight, for flocks of birds.
It is doubtless an Antennarius, and perhaps this very species, that is thus described by Mr. Earl, as observed on the coast of Borneo: "Large tracts of mud had been left uncovered by the receding tide, and flocks of gulls and other birds ​were feeding on the worms and small fish. Vast numbers of little amphibious creatures were running about in the mud, and they appeared to be sought after by some of the larger birds. They were from two to eight inches long, resembling a fish in shape, of a light brown colour, and could run and jump by means of two strong pectoral fins. On the approach of an enemy, they buried themselves in the mud with inconceivable rapidity, so that their sudden diasppearance seemed to be the work of magic. One of the Malays was employed in catching them, as they are considered to be a great delicacy. He used for the purpose a thin plank, four feet long, and one foot broad; on one end of which were fixed several sharp-pointed nails, the points projecting beyond the end of the plank. He placed the plank flat upon the mud, and with the right knee resting on it, and kicking the mud with the left foot, he shot along the surface with great rapidity, the sharp-pointed nails transfixing the little creatures before they could succeed in burying themselves sufficiently deep to avoid it. This is a dangerous sport, and requires great skill in the fisherman to prevent accidents; for should he lose his plank, death would be almost inevitable, the mud not having sufficient consistence to support him without the aid of this simple contrivance."
About forty species, contained in four genera, compose this Family: they are all marine, and are found in both hemispheres, principally in the intertropical seas. A few inhabit the Mediterranean, and one is by no means uncommon around ​the British Isles, and on the northern shores of Europe.
Genus Lophius. (Linn.)
The head in this genus is enormously large in proportion to the body, very broad, depressed, and spinous in many parts; the mouth is wide, deeply cleft, armed with teeth, differing in size, but numerous, sharp and incurved; the lower jaw fringed round with a series of free fleshy filaments. The tongue is broad; the gill-cavities are capacious, but open by a small aperture; the gill-rays are six in number. There are two dorsals, separated; the summit of the head is furnished with two or three bony filaments, jointed in a peculiar way to the skull, so as to be capable of free motion in various directions. Cuvier considers these as being, structurally, the first spines of the anterior dorsal. "In the Angler, or Fishing-frog (Lophius piscatorius, Linn.) of the British seas, the motions of these detached rays are very peculiar. Two are considerably in advance of the eyes, almost close to the upper lip; the posterior of these is articulated by a stirrup upon the ridge of the base, but the anterior one is articulated by a ring at its base, into a solid staple of the bone, thus admitting of free motion in every direction, without the possibility of displacement, except in case of absolute fracture. The third one, which is on the top of the cranium, behind the eyes, is articulated much in the same manner as the posterior one of the other two; and of course, though these two have considerable motion in the mesial plane of the fish, ​they have very little in the cross direction. The one near the lip, however, can be moved with nearly the same ease and rapidity in every direction; and while the others terminate in points, it carries a little membrane, or flag, of brilliant metallic lustre, which the fish is understood to use as a
means of alluring its prey; and the position of the flag, the eyes, and the mouth certainly would answer well for such a purpose.”
The fact that the fish does use these long filaments as baits to attract the fishes which are to become its prey, seems to be indubitable, and has been known ever since the days of Aristotle. At that early period the instinctive stratagem had secured for it the name of Fisher, and the terms Fishing Frog, and Angler, by which it is known with us, commemorate the popular opinion of its powers. The absence of an air-bladder compels the Lophius to be a ground feeder, nor does it seem able to float freely at any depth without effort as many fishes do, or to do more than rise to the surface by the impulse of its fins, sinking as soon as the muscular effort is intermitted. Its ​habitual place is on the muddy or sandy bottom, on which its flattened form lies close. While lying thus, it stirs up, by the action of its pectorals and ventrals, the mud around, and thus renders the water turbid. Under the concealment thus formed, it moves hither and thither its coronal filaments, and especially that one which bears a little silvery flag; which, glimmering through the cloudy water, attracts other passing fishes towards it, actuated either by curiosity or appetite. The upturned eyes of the Angler mark the success of his strategic art, and a sudden lifting of his capacious mouth engulfs the unsuspecting victims.
The voracity of this fish is very great; in fact it seems to be composed of little else than mouth and stomach. Montagu says of one, that when suspended by the head, the contents of the stomach were readily seen, viz., by looking into the mouth and down the throat. The same naturalist remarks, that when the Angler finds itself a captive in the fishermen's nets, its appetite is by no means affected by its misfortune; for it proceeds immediately to devour its companions in captivity. Fishes thus swallowed are not infrequently taken from its stomach still alive, especially those which are tenacious of life, such as the flat-fishes. Its own flesh is not held in sufficient estimation to make it any prize on its own account, but the frequency with which other fishes, more valuable than itself, are found uninjured within its stomach, renders its capture not without value.
An example of its voracity has already been quoted in the earlier pages of this volume; and ​Mr. Yarrell’s beautiful work on British Ichthyology contains other instances, recorded on the authority of Mr. Couch, of the blind, indiscriminate appetite of this species. From these and other facts, it would appear that the Fishing Frog is in no wise delicate in his taste, and that he may be characterized as a glutton rather than an epicure. The amount of mischief done by such a gourmand on a fishing-ground must be enormous; especially as it is by no means uncommon to capture a dozen at once, and from their habits probably few are taken compared with the numbers that are present.
On the Scottish coast, this species is called Wide-gab, and Sea-devil. It is sometimes met with four, and even five feet in length. The body is not marked with the diverse hues common in the Family, the upper surface of the head, body, and fins being of a dark brown, nearly uniform in tint; the under surface of the same parts pure white. The eyes are brown, devoid of the metallic brilliancy so general in fishes.
Family XVI. Labridæ.
(Wrasses.)
In this very extensive Family we find great brilliancy and variety of colour, perhaps even in a higher degree than in the Chætodons. The richest greens, purples, blues, yellows, and reds of all degrees of intensity, in various combinations, are the common hues of the Wrasses, especially of those which inhabit the warmer seas; but the shores of Britain and those of southern Europe produce not a few, which shine in gorgeous tints, unfortunately as evanescent as beautiful. Some shade of green is perhaps the most common ground-colour, and the other hues are usually disposed in the form of spots or of longitudinal bands.
Little skill suffices to recognize the Wrasses. Their body is oblong, and spindle-shaped, clothed with rather large scales, which do not extend upon the fins. They have a single dorsal which is lengthened, partly spinous, partly flexible; the spinous rays commonly shorter than the others, and terminated by membranous filaments. The jaws are covered by fleshy lips, often thick and prominent, whence the name of the principal genus has been derived, Labrus from labrum, a lip. There are three bones in the pharynx (or throat), all of which are furnished with teeth, sometimes arranged like the stones of a pavement, sometimes pointed, or in laminæ; but generally conspicuous, and stronger than is customary in fishes. The intestines are either destitute of cæca, or are furnished with two small ones: a ​swimming bladder is present, simple in structure, strong, and large.
About five hundred species are comprised in this Family, of which just one-fifth are European: the remainder are scattered over the shores of both hemispheres, most abundantly between the tropics. Around the spicy islands of the magnificent Oriental Archipelago, among the numberless kays and rocks of the Caribbean Sea, and especially in the clear and tranquil lagoons that abound in the coral-girt islets of the Pacific, the Wrasses, or Rock-fishes are exceedingly numerous, generally of small size, but of the most vivid colours. It is delightful to glide along in a boat over the surface of these calm waters, and peep down into the rocky chasms below, through an element scarcely less transparent than the air above; to see the corals and madrepores growing in a thousand fantastic forms, mimic shrubs of contorted slender branches, irregular wavy foliations, honey-combed masses of delicate laminæ, all of stone; great round brainstones with sinuous meandering furrows, all full of life; broad sea-fans of yellow and purple waving to and fro; sponges of curious shapes, and other forms of animal existence at its very lowest scale. Over these semi-animate masses other creatures are crawling; sea-urchins with long spines all quivering and vibrating with irregular and independent motion; star-fishes, with snake-like, slender tails; and beautiful shells half enveloped in the soft fleshy mantle that glows with rainbow tints, as each slowly creeps along. Twining about the tufts of living stone, now hiding in the cavernous recesses, now emerging, are seen multitudes of ​strange annellidous creatures, like worms and leeches, many of them banded with contrasting colours, and displaying tufts of diverging filaments resembling gorgeous flowers. Crabs with painted shells, or horrid with bristling spines; transparent shrimps studded with spots of rich and vivid colour, violet and crimson, and other crustacea of the strangest shapes, are running, swimming, and darting hither and thither; and over all play hundreds of little fishes, sparkling in the rays of a tropical sun.
Many of these are indolently floating near the surface, enjoying the warmth of the sun, motionless except that a gentle undulation of the pectorals is perceived, whereby they are enabled to maintain their equilibrium. Some with a rapid vibration of the caudal fin are shooting swiftly to and fro, leaving a long sparkling wake behind them; and others are lying half concealed beneath the projecting ledges of the rocks. But scores are more actively engaged; they are browsing on the tips of the twigs of the newly formed coral, and gnawing at the surface of the madrepores. We see them approach and try one part after another, apparently smelling at it, rejecting some and testing other portions, with epicurean gusto, nibbling here and there, and now, having found a dainty part, grinding it down with their strong teeth in right earnest. These are principally members of the Family before us, the little gaily-tinted Rock-fishes, feeding, as is their wont, upon the growing corals. The gelatinous polypes that deposit the stony secretion are so protected by the latter, that it would be impossible to get at them without ​grinding away the whole calcareous surface; but to the powerful jaws and teeth of the Labridæ this is an easy task; it is soon reduced to a pulp, and deposited in the stomachs of these fishes, where the nutritive matter is digested, and the stony residue rejected. Some of the genera have the power of protruding the mouth, and some (as the genus Epibulus) can impart a see-saw motion to the maxillary bones, analogous to that peculiar action of the jaws in the Rodentia, whereby they are enabled to gnaw away the hardest substances on which they feed, and probably here answering a similar end.
The beauty of these fishes is their only recommendation to man; their flesh is, for the most part, soft, and in no estimation as food.
We may consider the Labridæ as constituting three sub-families, distinguished by the following characters.
1. Labrina. In the typical group, the lips are very thick and fleshy; they are double, one lip adhering immediately to the jaw-bones, the other to the sub-orbitals. The teeth in the jaws are conical, those in the pharynx cylindrical, arranged like a pavement; the upper ones with two large plates, the under with one only, which fits to the others. The cutting teeth are sharp, simple, and distinct, those in front are the largest. The gills are thickly set, with five rays. The ventrals and pectorals are small. About three hundred species are enumerated as belonging to this group, which includes all the Labridæ, thirteen in number, found on the British coasts.
2. Chromidina. In many of their characters the members of this group resemble those of the ​preceding. They are distinguished, however, by having teeth resembling those of a card, except a range of conical ones in front. The operculum is scaled, the pre-operculum smooth. The pectorals and the ventrals are greatly developed; the former generally, the latter invariably, long and pointed, and sometimes produced into threads: the dorsal also sends forth thread-like filaments. About eighty species constitute this sub-family, which are almost exclusively natives of India. There is, however, a small species in the Mediterranean, and one (Chromis Niloticus, Cuv.), which, contrary to the habits of the family, is fluviatile, and reckoned the best fish in the Nile.
3. Scarina. The jaws, (intermaxillaries and premandibles) are convex, rounded, and furnished with scale-like teeth on their margin and anterior surface. The jaws themselves resemble great teeth, and actually perform the office of teeth, being very thick and sharpened at the edges. These rounded bones are divided in the middle by a narrow line, and move vertically, independently of each other, as we have noticed in the living fish. They are nearly covered with fleshy lips, but there are no sub-orbital lips, as in the Labrina. The head and crown are usually elevated, the profile abrupt, sometimes vertical. The body is oblong, covered with coarse, horny scales, which are generally much larger on the tail than elsewhere. The caudal is for, the most part crescent-shaped; the lateral line is interrupted. About one hundred and twenty species belong to this sub-family; scarcely any of which are found beyond the tropics. They are known as Parrot-fishes, chiefly on account of their rounded ​enamelled jaws, resembling the mandibles of a Parrot's beak, and partly perhaps on account of their vivid colours, in which respect they are in no wise inferior to the Wrasses proper. The flesh of these is eaten.
There is one species in the Mediterranean (Scarus creticus, Aldr.), which, after much investigation, Cuvier has concluded to be the Scarus so celebrated among the ancients, that, during the reign of Claudius, Elipertus Optatus, the Roman admiral, undertook an expedition to Greece, in order to procure it for distribution, with a view to its naturalization in the Italian seas. It is of a blue or a red colour, according to the season; and still inhabits the waters of the Grecian Archipelago, where it is eaten in its trail, like Surmullet with us. In the West Indies there are numerous species of great beauty; the flesh of these is eaten, though it is reputed to be peculiarly liable, at certain seasons, to assume that poisonous quality which we have described in a previous page, as characterizing the flesh of the Barracoota.
Genus Labrus. (Linn.)
In this extensive genus the operculum is scaled, the pre-operculum naked; both are destitute of spines or notches. The outline of the dorsal fin is nearly straight, or only slightly hollowed, between the spinous and the soft rays; the former are more numerous than the latter, and are furnished each with a short membranous filament behind its points; the caudal and the pectorals are rounded; the jaws are but slightly protrusile.
​None of our native fishes can compete with the Labri for richness and variety of colour; though in elegance of form and changeable opaline splendour, the Mackerel is still their superior. Orange and blue of great brilliancy are the prevalent colours, generally arranged in stripes, but interchanged with green, lilac, and other colours. The rich tints of blue are considered to be in some measure dependent on the health and high condition of the fish; and are liable to vanish with remarkable rapidity when the body is immersed in spirits. But the bright colours may be retained, as it seems, by a different mode of preservation; for Donovan speaks of specimens of the rare and lovely Labrus lineatus, in his possession, in which the natural colours were admirably well retained. The skin in this case had been removed, and divested of the flesh with great care, while perfectly fresh, and then well prepared.
The largest species we have on our shores is the Ballan Wrasse (Labrus maculatus, Bloch.), of which the rare little fish just mentioned is, ​by some naturalists, considered as the young. It attains the length of eighteen inches, and is rather thick in proportion. The colours are subject to some variation, but in general may be thus described. The ground-colour of the body is blue-green, darker on the upper parts, and paler on the lower; the scales, which are of large size, have orange-coloured margins, more or less wide: the head and cheeks are green with irregular lines of orange, and the thick lips are flesh-coloured. All the fins have red rays, and the intervening membranes spotted with fine greenish blue.
Such were the colours carefully noted down by Mr. Yarrell, of a fine specimen sent to him from Berwick; but one equally large from Swansea, described by Mr. Dillwyn, had a very different appearance. "The colour was red, becoming pale orange on the body; the body ornamented with bluish-green oval spots; the fins and tail green, with a few red spots; the dorsal-fin had spots along the base only." This discrepancy would depend on the greater or less width of the orange margins of the scales, in the former case the green hues, in the latter the red, predominating; while it serves to give a notion of the difficulty experienced by naturalists in determining the species of this charming Family, arising from the variableness of their coloration.
The habits of the European Wrasses appear to agree with those of their congeners in sunnier seas. The vast reefs and marine shrubberies of coral, with their innumerable animalcules, are indeed wanting in our northern latitudes, but still our rocks are inhabited by multitudes of ​soft-bodied animals, mollusca, naked and shelled, and crustacea, which afford to these fishes ample sustenance. Mr. Couch's account of the habits of the Ballan Wrasse is probably applicable, with little variation, to all the species. "It frequents deep gullies among rocks, where it shelters itself among the larger kinds of sea-weeds, and feeds upon crabs and other crustaceous animals. It takes a bait freely, and fishermen remark that when they first fish in a place, they take but few, and those of large size; but on trying the same spot a few days after, they catch a greater number, and those smaller: from whence they conclude that the large fish assume the dominion of a district, and keep the younger at a distance. The spawn is shed in April; and the young, scarcely more than an inch in length, are seen about the margin of the rocks in shallow water, through the summer."
Some of the smaller species are occasionally taken in the wicker pots or creels set for crabs and lobsters; these, being baited with pieces of decaying flesh, or the offal of fishes, are sunk in shallow water, and not unfrequently attract small fishes to enter through the openings made by elastic converging points; entrance is easy enough, for the slender twigs yield to the pressure of the eager fish, but no sooner has it entered than these spring back to their former position, and present nothing but a close-set array of sharp points, which effectually preclude the hope of exit.
They are of little value, however, when caught; their flesh is soft and ill-flavoured, and consequently the fishermen do not in general bring them to market, but cut them up to bait the ​crab-pots, in which they have been taken. Their beauty, it is true, occasionally secures them a place on the fishmonger's stall, when the specimens, at least of the rarer species, are pretty sure to be soon snatched up, not for the table, but for the shelves of some museum.
Family XVII. Fistulariadæ.
(Spinous Pipe-fishes.)
Some of the Labridæ have the faculty of protruding the mouth so excessively as to form a tube; and there is one genus, the Green Wrasses (Gomphosis), of Ceylon, in which the mouth is not protractile, but the bones are lengthened into a permanent slender tube, at the extremity of which is placed the mouth. Thus we are prepared for the very limited but very curious and interesting family of tube-mouthed fishes before us. It has, however, other analogies, among the soft-finned fishes; as in the curious genus Mormyrus, found only in the Nile, considered by Cuvier, as allied to the Pikes, which have a small mouth set at the end of a slender tube; but especially in the Syngnathidæ, perhaps the most interesting of the whole Class, for the singularity of their organization and economy, in which the bones of the face are prolonged into a tubular snout, so similar to that of the present Family, that both alike have received the popular appellation of Pipe-fishes.
The Fistulariadæ, then, are characterized by having the face prolonged into a slender tube projecting forwards, composed of elongations of ​the following bones:—the ethmoid (or anterior wall of the skull) the vomer, (or central bone of the roof of the mouth) the pre-operculum and inter-operculum, (the anterior parts, above and below, of the gill-cover) the pterygoids and tympanals, (bones which help to form the cheeks). At the extremity of the osseous tube thus formed is placed the mouth, composed of the bones of the palate and the usual jaw-bones. In addition to this strongly marked character, it may be observed that the ribs are very short, or altogether wanting, and that the intestinal canal is short, comparatively free from irregularities and from windings.
This small Family, scarcely mustering twenty species, contains two peculiarities of form, the types of two sub-families.
1. Fistulariana. In these the body is long and slender, with the head about one-third of the whole length. They have six or seven gill-rays; with some bony appendages behind the head, to strengthen the fore parts of the body. There is, but one dorsal, situated far back, immediately above the anal; the stomach is a fleshy tube merging into a straight canal, with two cæca at the commencement. These are the little fishes frequently brought home as curiosities from the tropical parts of the Atlantic and Pacific, and called Tobacco-pipe fishes. There are eight species enumerated, but they are of no use to man.
2. Centriscina. The mouth-tube is slender and cylindrical, and the body is oval or oblong, not ​lengthened, flattened sidewise, and coming to an edge along the back. They have only two or three gill-rays, which are slender. There are two dorsals, the first strongly spinous, and both placed far behind; and small ventrals situated behind the pectorals. The mouth is very small and opens obliquely; the intestinal canal has two or three folds, but no cæcal appendages; there is an air-bladder of considerable size. Ten species are comprised in this sub-family, forming two genera; they are scattered over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; one is common in the Mediterranean, whence it occasionally wanders to the southern shores of Great Britain.
Genus Centriscus, (Linn.)
In this genus the form is short and compressed, the depth much exceeding the transverse diameter of the body; the head is not far short of half the whole length, much produced into a slender tube; the mouth, opening at the extremity, is very small, and destitute of teeth. The first dorsal is situated far back, and contains three or four spinous rays, of which the first is large and strong, connected by intermediate pieces with the bones of the shoulder and the skull: being thus supported, and very stout and strong in itself, and armed with a series of rugged teeth along its hinder edge, this spine forms a powerful weapon of offence and defence, capable of being moved at the will of the animal. The ventral fins are small and united. The body is covered with small scales, and with some larger toothed ones over the bony apparatus that connects the ​dorsal spine with the fore parts. The under side of the body forms a sharp ridge, running along the abdomen.
Only one species is recognized, Centriscus scolopax, Linn., two or three specimens of which have been taken at different times on the southern coasts of this island. The earliest example recorded is that of one five inches long, which was cast ashore by the waves, in St. Austle’s Bay, Cornwall, in the year 1804. It is commonly known as the Snipe-fish, or Trumpet-fish; and we learn from Mr. Yarrell’s Synonymy, that in Cornwall it has received the title of Bellows-fish, an appellation pointing to its obvious similarity in form to that useful article of household economy, the caudal fin representing the handles, and the tubular snout the pipe, of the bellows.
The Snipe-fish rarely exceeds the size of the
specimen already mentioned. When full grown the back is red, somewhat paler on the sides, and passing into silvery white, tinged with gold-colour, on the belly. All the fins are greyish-white. The young are of a brilliant silvery lustre, without the ​red hue. The eyes are large and conspicuous; the irides are silvery, streaked with red, and the pupils are black. The scales are hard and rough, granulated on the surface and beautifully ciliated, or cut into very delicate filaments on the hinder edge.
Little is known of the habits of this singular little fish. According to Risso, it prefers a muddy bottom in moderately deep water, spawning in spring. The young are seen near the shore of the Mediterranean in autumn, shining with the silvery gleam already alluded to, they not having yet acquired the rich hue of the adult state: they are not numerous, and do not wander far from the locality in which they are bred. We have, however, seen the Snipe-fish under circumstances which seem to imply very different habits from these. In a recent voyage to Jamaica, when about one hundred and sixty miles south west of Madeira, a little Centriscus was taken alive in a bucket of water drawn from alongside; and on the same day a Bonito (Thynnus pelamys) was caught, the stomach of which was filled with these Snipe-fishes. The Bonito is well-known to be a surface-swimming fish; and his morning meal having been exclusively made of the Centrisci, combines with the specimen taken in a bucket, to prove that the latter also is a surface species, while the locality shows it to be pelagic. As all the individuals were alike in size, and none exceeded two inches and a half in length, it may have been a species distinct from the C. scolopax of the Mediterranean.
The food of the Snipe-fish is not recorded by naturalists: Mr. Yarrell, however, speaking conjecturally, says, "it probably consists of minute ​crustaceous animals; and in reference to the tubular mouth, it is probable that by dilating the throat, these fishes can draw their food up their cylindrical beak, as water is drawn up the pipe of a syringe. The beak-like mouth is also well adapted for detaching minute animals from among the various sorts of sea-weed. The flesh of the Trumpet-fish is considered good."
The natural history of Fishes is very meagre, as compared with the other branches of Zoology. We have exceedingly few of those details of manners, those narratives of instinctive actions, those accounts of curious contrivances and stratagems by which the great purposes of animal life are fulfilled, those delightful anecdotes of individual biography,—that throw such a charm over the history of other Classes of Vertebrate animals. Yet we doubt not that there exist abundant materials for such narratives, could we but get at them; the observations very recently published on the nest-making habits of certain fishes, long familiar to us, but hitherto unsuspected of any such instincts, intimate to us that this Class of living beings is not destitute of those endowments which so beautifully illustrate the inexhaustible resources of wisdom and beneficent power that belong to God, and which are seen in endless variety in those creatures which are patent to our observations. A great, and we fear insuperable, difficulty which the naturalist meets with in prosecuting his investigations into the manners and economy of Fishes, is the nature of the element in which they live. Even the common species of our rivers and ponds ​are secluded from observation for the greatest part of their time, the depth of only a few feet of water precluding the possibility of our watching them with that care and perseverance necessary for the ascertaining of facts; while the desire of retirement manifested by these in common with most animals for the carrying on of the most important and interesting offices of their economy and instinct, combined with their timidity, prompts them to dwell in holes and caverns in the banks, or beneath the shelter of stones, or among the dense beds of waving weeds, or in the ooze and mud of the bottom, where the eye of the most patient and experienced observer can but now and then obtain a momentary glance at their forms, but is absolutely interdicted from perceiving what they are doing.
If this be true of our common lacustrine and fluviatile fishes, how much more applicable is it to the thousands which are marine, and especially to those which are pelagic! Who can penetrate into the depths of ocean to trace the arrowy course of the mailed and glittering beings that shoot along like animated beams of light? Who can follow them to their rocky beds and coral caverns? The wandering mariner sees with interested curiosity the Flying-fish leap in flocks from the water, and the eager Bonito rushing after them in swift pursuit; but who can tell what the Flying-fish is doing when not pursued, or how the Bonito is engaged when the prey is not before him? How many pleasing traits of conjugal or parental attachment the waves of the fathomless sea may conceal, we know not: what ingenious devices for self-protection; what structures for the concealment of ​eggs or offspring; what arts of attack and defence; what manœuvrings and stratagems; what varied exhibitions of sagacity, forethought and care; what singular developments of instinct;—who shall tell? A few examples of these we are acquainted with, some of which have been, and others will be, mentioned in this volume;—but these have become known more by accident, "the fortune of the hour," than by research; and while they possess an enhanced interest from their rarity, they rather tend to whet and tantalize our curiosity than to satisfy it, confirming the presumption that such facts are not uncommon among fishes, though they do not much encourage our hopes of ever being able to draw aside the veil that conceals the chief part of the economy of this important Class of animals from the observation of man.
* ↑ Vol. v. p. 277.
* ↑ Practice of Angling, ii. 2.
* ↑ Cuv. et Val. Hist. des Poissons.
* ↑ Cuv. et Val. ii. 25.
* ↑ Brit. Fishes, i. 4.
* ↑ Cuv. et Val. Hist. des Poiss. iii. 346.
* ↑ Brit. Fishes, i. 34.
* ↑ New Sporting Mag. xix. 94.
* ↑ Cited in Yarrell's British Fishes, i. 125.
* ↑ Griffith's Animal Kingdom, x. 322.
* ↑ Phil. Trans. 1764, vol. liv. p. 89.
* ↑ Hist. des Poissons, vii. 310.
* ↑ Ibid. p. 321.
* ↑ Animal Kingdom, vol. x. p. 636.
* ↑ British Fishes, i. 138.
* ↑ Mag. Nat. Hist. vii. 637.
* ↑ Bingley's Animal Biography, iii. 261.
* ↑ Caranx trachurus, Lacep.
* ↑ This genus, however, is by Cuvier arranged in the Order of Soft-finned Fishes, among the Eels: by Prince Bonaparte, among the Cods.
* ↑ British Fishes, i. 227.
* ↑ Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. July, 1838.
* ↑ Yarrell's British Fishes, i. 236.
* ↑ Monocardians, ii. 72.
* ↑ Nov. Act i. 9.
* ↑ Lectures on Comp. Anat. ii. 260.
* ↑ Professor Owen.
* ↑ Eastern Seas, p. 213.
* ↑ Mudie, in Cuvier’s Animal Kingdom, (London, 1840) p.308.
* ↑ Professor Owen, (Comp. Anat. ii. 104.) It helps to support and protect the organs of smell.