Page:An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.djvu/73

Rh The scales of the lateral line are sometimes larger than the others, sometimes smaller, sometimes modified into scutes,



sometimes there are no other scales beside them, the rest of the body being naked. The foramina of the lateral line are the outlets of a muciferous duct which is continued on to the head, running along the infraorbital bones, and sending off a branch into the præopercular margin and mandible. In many fishes, as in many Sciænoids, Gadoids, and in numerous deep-sea fishes, the ducts of this muciferous system are extraordinarily wide, and generally filled with mucus, which is congealed or contracted in specimens preserved in spirits, but swells again when the specimens are immersed in water. This system is abundantly provided with nerves, and, therefore, has been considered to be the seat of a sense peculiar to fishes, but there cannot be any doubt that its function is the excretion of mucus, although probably mucus is excreted also from the entire surface of the fish.

The scales, their structure, number and arrangement, are an important character for the determination of fishes; in most scaly fishes they are arranged in oblique transverse series; and as the number of scales in the lateral line generally corresponds to the number of transverse series, it is usual to count the scales in that line. To ascertain the number of longitudinal series of scales, the scales are counted in one of