Photo by James B. Corr, Esq.] [Dundee.

YELLOW PHASE OF SPOTTED SALAMANDERS.

The first four or five months of the young salamander’s life are passed in the water.

Photographed and coloured by W. Saville-Keut, F.Z.S.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN SCARLET ROCK-COD.

A member of the Sea-Perch family not infrequently exposed for sale in the Freemantle fish market having excellent edible qualities. Photographed and coloured by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.8.,

FREEMANTLE DEVIL-FISH OR ARMED GURNARD.

An Australian representative of the Gurnard and Bull-head family, having spines which can inflict exceedingly painful wounds.

UNIV. OF

CALIFORNIA

Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.

AUSTRALIAN LUNG-FISH.

This fish is also known as the Burnett River Salmon.

BOOK IV. FISHES.

CHAPTER I.

LUNG-FISHES AND CHIMÆRAS.

BY W. P. PYCRAFT, A.L.S., F.Z.S.

Though amongst the lowest of the backboned animals, the Fishes are nevertheless an exceedingly interesting group, distinguished from all others by the possession of fins, which are divisible into two series,—an unpaired, ranged along the middle

of the back and abdomen, and including the tail-fin; and a paired series, representing the fore and hind limbs of land animals. The body is either clothed with scales or naked, and, being perfectly sustained by the water, needs no support from the fins, which serve as balancing-organs.

In the brilliancy and beauty of their coloration fishes display a variety that cannot be excelled by any other animals. Furthermore, the coloration is often rendered still more beautiful from the fact that it can undergo rapid changes of hue. Frequently this coloration is of a protective character, causing the fish to harmonise with its surroundings, and so escape the observation of its enemies. The colours of living fishes can only, for the most part, be indicated in the present pages when a pattern exists by the formation of stripes or spots; but the wonderful variations in the form of the body will probably prove a revelation to many.

LUNG-FISHES.

The LUNG-FISHES are a peculiarly important group, inasmuch as they form a connecting-link between the class Fishes and the land-dwelling Amphibians—the class containing the Frogs and Toads and their allies. They are accorded this position mainly because, like Amphibians, they possess true lungs, which almost entirely replace the gills, the breathing-organs of other fishes.

One of the best known of the lung-fishes is the AUSTRALIAN BARRAMUNDI, or LUNG-FISH OF QUEENSLAND—the BURNETT or DAWSON SALMON of the settlers. It lives among the weeds at the bottom of muddy rivers, rising frequently to the surface to take in atmospheric air by the lungs, the gills alone being insufficient for breathing purposes. The flesh, which is salmon-coloured, is much esteemed as food. The adult fish is said to attain to a weight of 20 lbs.

and a length of 6 feet. Other lung-fishes, eel-like in form, occur in the rivers of Africa and South America. The 609 77

African species is perhaps the better known of the two. On the approach of the dry season it buries itself in the mud at the bottom of the river, and when the latter becomes dry the mud hardens, holding the fish a prisoner till the return of the wet season several months later. A considerable number of these fishes have from time to time been dug out and sent to England enclosed in the mud into which they had retreated. The writer remembers assisting in the liberation of some during the last meeting of the British Association at Oxford. So hard had the prison-walls become that the mass had to be plunged into tepid water; this soon brought about a dissolution of the soil, and in a short time the fishes were swimming about as if in their native rivers. The African lung-fish is known also as the MUD-FISH; its American relative as the LEPIDOSIREN, or SOUTH AMERICAN MUD-FISH. In the American species, as in its African relative, the fins are whip-like in form; but the hinder or ventral pair, which correspond to the hind limbs of the higher vertebrated animals, are remarkable in that in the male they develop during the breeding-season numerous thread-like processes, richly supplied with blood, the function of which is as yet unknown.

The young, both of the African and South American mud-fishes, bear external gills closely resembling those of the tadpoles of the frog and other Amphibia; traces of these gills remain throughout life in the African form.

CHIMÆRAS.

Shark-like in their general characters, the CHIMÆRAS, now briefly considered, are nevertheless regarded as constituting a very distinct group of great

antiquity. The modern representatives of the group are few in number—five species in all. Of these, the species shown in the accompanying photograph and the SEA-CAT are remarkable for the possession of a movable tentacle on the snout. ‘The

under surface of this tentacle is armed with small spines, and fits into a hollow in the head. The first back-fin is supported in front by a strong spine, and can be depressed into a sheath in the body-walls. The teeth take the form of large plates closely united with the jaws, and studded with hardened points, or “ tritors.”

One species widely distributed in the Mediterranean and Atlantic is taken usually in deep water; it is the largest living species, often attaining a yard in length. Its occurrence is, however, very erratic, months elapsing without any being taken; at other times several will be caught in a few days. A closely allied fish is often exposed for sale in the Lisbon markets, where it ranks with the Sharks as a food-fish.

The egg of the BOTTLE-NOSED CHIMÆRA is perhaps the only egg with a mimetic resemblance to a foreign object. It is elliptical in form, and bordered by a fringe, so as to present a close resemblance to a piece of seaweed.

In the next chapter we begin the description of the great group of Fan- and Fringe-finned Fishes, which, briefly, embrace all fishes not grouped among the Lung-fishes, Chimæras, or Sharks. The anatomical characters used for the purpose of classifying this great group are not discussed here, save only in a few cases of prime importance, when features such as can readily be observed, without demanding an intimate knowledge of anatomy, are selected.

Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.

BOTTLE-NOSED CHIMÆRA.

The remarkable structure in front of the mouth is probably an organ of touch.

Photo by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt) (Washington,

WHITE PERCH.

The so-called white perch is a species of bass, found in the rivers of the United States of America, aint et Photo by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt) [ Washington. SEA-BASS. This is another American member of the Perch Tribe.

CHAPTER II.

THE PERCH FAMILY.

BY JOHN BICKERDYKE, M.A.

E thick-set, golden-bronze, dark- _L barred, hog-backed fish known as the PERCH has many striking characteristics, and is remarkable, among other things, for the vast number of its relations scattered all over the world. So numerous, indeed, are its cousins that ichthyologists have had to divide the Perch Family into a large number of groups. There are various species of perch found, as a matter of fact, in the fresh-waters and on all the coasts of the temperate and tropical regions.

Photo by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt] [Washington. The COMMON PERCH, which is LARGE-MOUTHED BLACK BASS. widely distributed over Europe, The introduction of this fish into the fresh-waters of Great Britain has been frequently Northern Asia, and North America, urged. is properly an inhabitant of rivers, lakes, and ponds, but sometimes descends to brackish water. It runs up to about 5 Ibs. in weight, and is carnivorous, eating most kinds of fish small enough for its swallow, including the fry of its own species, which are, in some waters, an excellent bait.

In England perch spawn in the spring, the eggs being held in a band-like mass of gelatinous matter deposited on weeds or the roots of trees not far below the surface of the water. The spawn, as a matter of fact, is often collected by fish-culturists and hatched out. Swans and water-fowl generally eat the eggs by the million, and wherever perch are preserved these birds should, so far as possible, be kept from the water during the spawning-season. At Henley and other places on the Thames those interested in fishery preservation place wire netting round the boughs and weeds where perch have spawned, to prevent the eggs being eaten by swans and ducks. Perch are usually termed Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S.] voracious fish, but when large BUTTER-FISH. tropical parts of the Indo-Pacific Ocean.are extremely shy and difficult A native of the 612

The Perch Family 613

of capture. There is a story told of a hungry little lake-perch which had its eye hooked out by accident. The angler, leaving the eye on the hook, lowered it into the water again, and a moment after hauled out a one-eyed perch! Among the species of perch found in British waters are the KUFFE, or POPE, a very small and common river-fish of no great value; the BASS, a fine sporting sea-fish, which comes up the estuaries of rivers to spawn, and is Photo by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt] [Washington. much sought after by the AMERICAN " SUN-FISH." amateur sea-fisher; the COMBER, Not to be confounded with the true Sun-fishes described in Chapter VII. or (TAPER, a fairly common fish on the coasts of the West of England; a rare sea-fish known as the DUSKY PERCH, caught occasionally off the South of England; the STONE-BASS, also called the WRECK-FISH, from its habit of following wreckage in the sea; and, lastly, the DENTEX, a rare species, not often Ibs.caught off the British coasts, which attains the weight of about 70

On the Continent there is the PIKE-PERCH, a fish having the appearance of a cross between a pike and a perch, and growing to 25 or 30 Ibs.; this voracious species is found in the lakes and rivers of the temperate northern zones, and is much esteemed for food. In the tropics there are a number of true SEA-PERCHES, which rarely enter fresh-water; they include the ANTHIAS, most beautifully coloured with pink and yellow, of which there are between 100 and 200 species. Some of the tropical sea-perches grow to an enormous size, and there are instances recorded of bathers having been attacked by them at Aden. Several monsters are coral-islands livestuffed in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. Among the many very beautifully coloured sea-perches of various species. Perhaps the most remarkable of all is the BOAR-FISH, or BASTARD DORY, which has a prolonged snout, no doubt used for getting out its food from the crannies among rocks and other awkward places.