Page:Natural History, Fishes.djvu/158

144 small, rounded; ventrals small, pointed, situated immediately beneath, or rather before the pectorals, composed of stiff rays, attached by a membrane at their base; teeth prominent, curved, and sharp; stomach and intestines very short, terminating a little way behind the head; air-bladder very long, reaching to the tail.

About nine species of this genus have been described, perhaps, however, not sufficiently distinct from each other, most of which inhabit the Mediterranean. One or two are occasionally seen on the Atlantic shores of Europe, and one species inhabits the Chinese seas. They differ very little in form; the shape of the caudal fin, the number of its component rays, and the position of the pectorals and ventrals with respect to each other,—constituting the distinctions which have been relied on as specific. In colour their resemblance is equally exact; a delicate tint of pink, in some specimens, even of the same species, deepening to a light vermilion, in others fading to a carnation or flesh-colour, is the universal hue, adorned in life with pearly, or silvery, or metallic reflections; the fins are party-coloured in bands.

The Eleven-rayed Band-fish (Cepola rubescens, .) has been found on the shores of this country; numerous specimens having occurred of late years (if indeed all of them were of this species) principally on the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall. Some of these attained the length of twenty inches; all were of the tender hue of pale red, varying in intensity, described above, and some displayed the brilliant colours of the long fins, which Mr. Swainson informs us, from