SCALES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1855, 10 June 1887, Page 27

SCALES.

The herring takes its name from the German word liar, an army, referring to the numbers in which this fish moves from place to place. Young fishes, as a rule, have a larger head and eye, with a smaller mouth and a body of less comparative breadth, than tb.3 adults of the came species.

The codfish finds on the coast of Newfoundland its natural food in profusion. Here there are vast submarine mountains .upon which crustaceans are abundant.

The bodies of fishes are always so near the specific gravity of water that the slightest development of gases in their tissues after death brings them to the surface. This is a wise provision of Nature, presenting their bodies as food to sea birds, the scavengeis of the sea.

The chsetodons have been described as occupying a similar place in the tropical seas to that which parrots occupy in tropical forests ; they even excel the parrots in brilliancy while living. All the colours of this fish have a metallic lustre, and although some of them are of one very intense colour — as golden, yellow, ultramarine, or rich bronze — when the fish is at rest, yet when it moves, it is iridescent and sparkles with gem-like lustre. This fish is sometimes called zebra on account of its beautiful stripes.

The organ of smell in fishes has no relation whatever t© the respiratory functions, with the exception of the Dipnoi, a tropical species having both lungs and gills. In these fish possibly part of the water received for respiration passes through the nasal sac. One of the most curious of fishes if the *' Lepidsiren " (Protopterus annectens). Its habitat extends over the whole of tropical Africa, where, in many districts, it is a regular article of food, During a dry season specimens living in shallow waters which periodically dry up, form a cavity in the mud, the inside of which they line with a protecting capsule of mucus, and from which they emerge again when the rains refil the pools inhabited by them. Whilst they remain in this torpid state of existence the clay balls containing them are frequently dug out, and if the capsules are not broken the fishes imbedded in them can be transported a long distance and the fish released by being immersed in slightly tepid water. This fish attains a length of six feet,

The Greenland shark, when feeding on the carcass of a whale, allows itself to be repeatedly stabbed in the head without abandoning its prey. Many fishes, especially predatory ones, with long lancet-shaped teeth, have all or some of the teeth capable of being bent in towards the mouth. Such " hinged teeth " resume at once their upright position when the pressuro is removed from them.