till it joins the tail, where it meets the anal fin, which begins so near the throat, that the anus is situated immediately below the angle of the lower jaw. The fins display a great brilliancy of colour, being of a most beautiful red, with five spots of a deeper or brighter cast, placed on each side of the body: the tail is wedge-shaped: the head is of a silver colour, mingled with red; the back is grey; and the sides and belly silvery.

This fish is found in the Mediterranean; it is sold in the markets of Rome; but its flesh is of an indifferent quality, and very lean. It is mostly used for bait. It lives on young crabs and other small shell-fish. It haunts marshy places near the shores; and may be caught with a line baited with a worm or the shell of a small crab.

THE winged flying fish, if we except its head and flat back, has, in the form of its body, a great resemblance to the herring. It is generally nine inches long, and full four round at the thickest part. The skin is uncommonly firm, and the scales are long and silvery. The pectoral fins are very long; and the dorsal fin is small, and placed near the tail, which is forked: the eye, in consequence of the largeness of the head, is admirably situated for discovering danger or prey; and when pushed out of the socket, which the fish can do considerably, its sphere of vision is greatly increased.

The flying fish inhabits the European, the American, and the Red Seas: but is chiefly found within the tropics. The wings, with which they have the power of raising themselves into the air, are nothing more than large pectoral fins, composed of seven or eight ribs, or rays, connected by a flexible, transparent, and glutinous membrane; they have their origin near the gills, and are

capable of considerable motion backwards and forwards; these fins are used also to aid the motion of the fish in the water; and if we may judge from the great length and surface of the oars, comparatively with the size of the body, the fish should be able to cut its way through the water with great velocity.

In flying, as it is termed, not only the wings and fins of this fish are much expanded, but also its tail; it skims along the surface of the deep, somewhat in the manner of a swallow, but in straight lines; and from the blackness of its back, the whiteness of its belly, and forked expanded tail, it has much the appearance. It flies fifty or sixty yards at one stretch; and repeats the exertion again and again by a momentary touch on the surface of the water, which gives vigour for a new departure.

It has been inconsiderately remarked, that all animated nature seems combined against this little fish, and that it possesses the double powers of swimming and flying only to subject it to greater danger: for if it escape its enemies of the deep, it is only to be devoured by the sea fowl, which are waiting its appearance in the air. Its destiny is, however, by no means pecularly severe: we should consider that, as a fish, it often escapes the attack of birds; and, in its winged character, it often, throws itself out of the power of the aquatic race.

THE REMORA, OR SUCKING-FISH.

THERE are only three known species of the suckingfish; these are occasionally seen in the Mediterranean sea and the Pacific ocean. The common sucking-fish, which inhabits most parts of the ocean, is usually about a foot in length; the head is large, equal in bigness to the body, which grows smaller gradually to the tail: the back is

convex, and black; and the belly white: it has six fins, two growing from behind the gills, two more under the throat, a long one on the back, and opposite to it, under the belly, another of the same form and size: the tail is wedge-shaped.

What this fish has peculiar to itself, is, that the crown of the head is flat, and of an oval form, with a ridge, or rising, running lengthways; and crossways to this, sixteen ridges, with hollow furrows between, by which structure it can fix to any animal or other substance, as it is often found adhering to the sides of ships, and the bodies of sharks, and other large fish.

Sucking fish are often eaten, and much admired: in taste they are said very greatly to resemble fried artichokes.

THE head of this fish is compressed, and bare of scales as far as the eyes; the mouth is large; the jaws are of equal length, with two strong canine teeth in front of each; the back teeth are flat, resembling the grinders of quadrupeds; the palate and tongue are smooth: the nostrils are single, and near the eyes; these last are small, with a black pupil in a blue iris: the aperture of the gills is wide, and the membrane mostly uncovered: the body is of a yellow colour, with six or seven brown transverse stripes; the scales are broad, thin, smooth, and extend over part of the anal, tail, and dorsal fins : the lateral line goes straight along the back to the end of the dorsal fin; it begins again about the middle of the tail, and is lost in the fin. This fish inhabits the shores

of Japan, and the Red sea.

THE head of this species is broader than high, and the forehead shortened; the lower jaw is the longest, and it lengthens downwards, not in front, like other fish. Both jaws, as well as the palate and tongue, are armed with teeth; the barbles arise from the corners or extremities of the upper lip: the nostrils are single, and near the mouth: the eyes are very remarkable; each containing two parts, or a double pupil, which has caused them to be called four eyes: the cavity of the eyes differs from other fish; this cavity is not a cylinder, as in other animals, but a part of one only: on each side, at the top of the head, there is an arched thin bone advancing towards the skull; these bones face each other with their concave surfaces; the eye is cylindrical, and is fixed in this cavity, but rises above it: the pupil is seen above the surface, enclosed in a black iris: as the corner is equally luminous in the internal part, the pupil is seen double. The gill coverts are smooth and slippery; the body upwards is broader than it is thick; but it takes a rounded form towards the tail; the sides are ornamented with five longitudinal dark brown stripes; they run quite to the tail, where the two outermost are connected by a transverse stripe, and the three middlemost by another: the lateral line is scarcely visible; the anus is nearer to the tail than to the head; the dorsal fin is small, and near the tail. All the fins, except the ventrals, are covered mostly with small scales; on the body, the scales are larger. It is viviparous, like the whale, and produces its young alive.

This singular fish is found in the rivers of Surinam. It multiplies fast, and is esteemed by the inhabitants as good food; it grows from six to ten inches in length.

Of the loach kind of fish, there are eleven different species; but finding our limits will not permit us to give the history of them all, we have inserted the above as being the most curious.

THE whole body of this fish, and the ground colour of the fins, are of a beautiful red, darker towards the back, and lighter towards the belly; the membranes of the fins are almost white, and the red rays shining through them have a very fine effect; the three white points of the tail form, to the idea, a trident, or a tulip: the head is short, but large; the mouth is small; and the nostrils single: the pupil of the eye is black; the iris yellow; the back is round; the lateral line nearer the back than the head: the scales are large, and the rays of the fins ramified. This beautiful fish is found in the fresh waters of China, and is supposed to be a variety of the gold fish.

THE WHITE BAIT.

THIS fish has a great similarity to the bleak, and during the month of June, appears in the Thames, near Black wall and Greenwich. The usual length of this small species is two inches; the dorsal fin is placed near the head, so that, when suspended by it, the tail sinks down; the tail is forked and black on the tips. These small fry are usually caught for the purpose of bait for other fish. When fried with flour, they are reckoned a delicious viand by the lower order of epicures, who frequent the taverns contiguous to the places where they are taken.

No naturalist has yet determined to what particular fish this belongs, though all are agreed that it is the young of some species that resort here. Some have ascribed its origin to the shad; others to the sprat, the smelt, and the bleak. These fish, however, are all found in other streams, while the white bait is peculiar to the river

Thames.