Fig. 206.—Leptoscopus macropygus.
Leptoscopus macropygus, not rare on the coast of New Zealand.
Other genera of Stare-gazers are Agnus from the Atlantic coasts of North America; Anema from the Indian Ocean and New Zealand; and Kathetostoma from Australia and New Zealand.
2. In the Trachinina the eyes are more or less lateral; the lateral line is continuous; and the intermaxillary without a larger tooth on its posterior portion.
Trachinus.—Cleft of the mouth very oblique; eye lateral, but directed upwards. Scales very small, cycloid. Two dorsal fins, the first short, with six or seven spines; ventrals jugular; the lower pectoral rays simple. Villiform teeth in the jaws, on the vomer and palatine bones. Præorbital and præoperculum armed.
The “Weevers” are common fishes on the European coasts, and but too well known to all fishermen; singularly enough they do not extend across the Atlantic to the American coast, but reappear on the coast of Chili! Wounds by their dorsal and opercular spines are much dreaded, being extremely painful, and sometimes causing violent inflammation of the wounded part. No special poison-organ has been found in these fishes, but there is no doubt that the mucous secretion in the vicinity of the spines has poisonous properties. The dorsal spines as well as the opercular spine have a deep double groove in which the poisonous fluid is lodged, and by which it is inoculated in the punctured wound. On the British coasts two species occur, T. draco, the Greater Weever, attaining to a length of twelve inches, and T. vipera, the Lesser Weever, which grows only to half that size.
Champsodon.—Body covered with minute granular scales; lateral lines two, with numerous vertical branches. Cleft of the mouth wide, oblique. Eye lateral, but directed upwards. Two dorsal fins; ventral fins jugular; pectoral rays branched. Teeth in the jaws in a single series, thin, long, of unequal size. Teeth on the vomer, none on the palate. Gill-openings exceedingly wide. Præoperculum with a spine at the angle and a fine serrature on the posterior margin.
Champsodon vorax is not uncommon at small depths off the Philippine Islands, Admiralty Islands, and in the Arafura Sea.
Percis.—Body cylindrical, with small ctenoid scales; cleft of the mouth slightly oblique; eye lateral, but directed upwards. Dorsal fins more or less continuous, the spinous with four or five short stiff spines; ventrals a little before the pectorals. Villiform teeth in the jaws, with the addition of canines; teeth on the vomer, none on the palatines. Opercles feebly armed.
Fifteen species; small, but prettily coloured shore-fishes of the Indo-Pacific.