Page:An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.djvu/69

Rh dried and hardened during the hot season, forms occur entirely devoid of, or with only rudimentary, ventral fins (Cyprinodon, Ophiocephalidæ, Galaxiidæ, Siluridæ). The chief function of these fins being to balance the body of the fish whilst swimming, it is evident that in fishes moving during a great part of their life over swampy ground, or through more or less consistent mud, this function of the ventral fins ceases, and that nature can readily dispense with these organs altogether.

In certain fishes the shape and function of the fins are considerably modified: thus, in the Rays, locomotion is almost entirely effected and regulated by the broad and expanded pectoral fins acting with an undulatory motion of their margins, similar to the undulations of the long vertical fins of the Flat-fishes; in many Blennies the ventral fins are adapted for walking on the sea-bottom; in some Gobioids (Periophthalmus), Trigloids, Scorpænioids, and Pediculati, the pectoral fins are perfect organs of walking;

in the Gobies, Cyclopteri, and Discoboli the ventral fins are transformed into an adhesive disk, and finally in the Flying-fish, in which the pectorals act as a parachute. In the Eels and other snake-like fishes, the swimming as well as the gliding motions are effected by several curvatures of the body, alternate towards the right and left, resembling the locomotion of Snakes. In the Syngnathi (Pipe-fishes) and Hippocampi, whose body admits of but a slight degree of lateral curvature, and whose caudal fin is generally small, if present at all, locomotion is very limited, and almost wholly dependent on the action of the dorsal fin, which consists of a rapid undulating movement.

The skin of fishes is either covered with scales, or naked, or provided with more or less numerous scutes of various forms and sizes. Some parts, like the head and fins, are more