Fig. 395. Adult Green and Red varieties of Labrus communis.
Of the Labridæ we represent here, as a type of the family, the adult Green and Red Labrus (Fig. 395), varieties of the commonest species, called the sea-parrot, the body of each being oblong, clothed with large scales: a dorsal fin, frequently with membranous appendages, thick fleshy lips, and large conical teeth; cheeks and gill-covers clothed with scales; gill-covers smooth at the edges; three spines in the anal fin. In Julis the cheeks and gill-covers are without scales; in other respects they resemble Labrus.
Fig. 396. The Pipe-fish (Fistularia tabacaria).
Among the acanthopterygeous fishes we shall only notice the singular family of Fistulariadæ, or Pipe-fishes, so called from the extreme elongation of the fore part of the head, forming a tube, at the extremity of which is the mouth. Of this family, Fistularia tabacaria (Fig. 396) may be considered the type. The tube of the muzzle is long and flat, and from the caudal fin springs a terminal filament nearly as long as the body. This species of pipe-fish is common at the Antilles; it attains the length of about three feet, but its flesh is leathery and insipid. It feeds upon crustaceans and small fishes, which it drags from the interstices of the rocks and stones by means of its long and taper pipe.
We close our abbreviated history of the Ocean and such of the inhabitants with which it swarms as seems most likely, from their habits and other peculiarities, to interest the readers, conscious of its many imperfections. Where every creature which moves and breathes in the watery world is so full of interest, it will not surprise the reader to learn that one of the editor's chief difficulties has been that of selection, his most painful task that of rejecting the vast mass of interesting matter he had necessarily to pass in review.
We have shown in the first chapter of this work that nearly three-fourths of the surface of the earth is bathed by the sea. Struck with this vast extent of ocean, a witty French writer says, "One is almost tempted to believe that our planet was specially created for fishes." They are, indeed, a very important part of creation; they form, as it were, a bond uniting the vertebrate to invertebrate animals. They have a more complicated organization than any of the other oceanic inhabitants (except the Cetaceæ), as they are also the most numerous, the most varied in form, and by far the most brilliant in colour, and the most active in their movements.
Pliny, the naturalist, describes ninety-four species of fishes. Linnæus has characterised four hundred and seventy-eight. The naturalists of the present day know upwards of thirteen thousand, a tenth of which are fresh-water fishes.