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Rh exclusive applicability of it to this particular genus. According to the last named authority, the common species has obtained at Nice, the names of Fire-flame and Red-ribbon; the former of which appellations it owes to its glittering appearance, as it shoots, meteor-like, through the water.

The appropriateness of the term Ribbon-fish to this species, is well-shown by an incident recorded in the Magazine of Natural History for 1838. A specimen, which had been obtained on the Irish coast, was sent to Mr. W. Thompson of Belfast, through the post-office. The penny stamp was not at that time introduced, but the fish, though nineteen and a-half inches in length, having been carefully folded up like a ribbon, passed in a franked letter of the ordinary size, and legal weight, viz., less than an ounce.

This is a compact and very natural Family, containing a great number of species, many of which are remarkable for the beauty of their forms, and for the brilliancy of their colours. About eighty species are enumerated, excluding the extensive genus Siganus, placed here by Cuvier, but which seems rather to belong to the Mackerel alliance. They are exclusively natives of the warmer parts of the globe; the tropical seas of both hemispheres, especially those of the East and West Indies, being the chief homes of the Family.