Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/453

 I SUCKING FISH (C. giblosus, Les.) is V to 12 in. long, dark brown above, golden greenish yellow on the sides, anterior part of abdomen whitish, and fins dark ; body convex in front of dorsal, and sides of head sometimes spiny or tuberculated ; it is common in the ponds of the New Eng- land and middle states. Large species from the northern regions have been described by Eichardson and Agassiz. Among the larger species of the western rivers are the Missouri suckfr (C. elongatus, Les.), 2 to 3 ft. long, in the Ohio river, black on the back, and hence called black horse and black buffalo ; and the buffalo sucker (0. lubalus, Eaf.), of about the same size, in the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, and their tributaries, brownish above, bronzy on the sides, and whitish on abdomen. SUCKING FISH, the popular name of the re- mora, a spiny-rayed fish of the genus echeneis (Linn.), so named from the Greek e^;v, to hold, and write, a ship. The body is elongated, tapering behind, covered with very small scales ; SUCEE 43T Mediterranean Sucking Fish (Echeneis remora). there are four perfect branchiae; very small teeth on jaws, vomer, and palate, crowded and hardly distinguishable posteriorly ; mouth small and horizontal, the lower jaw the longer ; eyes above the angles of the mouth ; ventrals thoracic, narrow, united only at the base ; head flattened. Above the head and anterior dorsal vertebrae is an oval disk, presenting from the middle to both sides oblique transverse carti- laginous plates, arranged like the slats of a Venetian blind; on the middle of the under surface are spine-like projections connected by short bands with the skull and vertebrae, and their upper margin is beset with fine teeth. According to De Blainville, this organ is an anterior dorsal fin, whose rays are split and expanded horizontally on each side instead of standing erect in the usual way. By means of this apparatus, partly suctorial and partly pre- hensile by the hooks, these fishes attach them- selves to rocks, ships, and the bodies of other fishes, especially to sharks. The dorsal is op- posite the anal, but the fins are weak, and these fishes accordingly adhere to sharks and other moving bodies, which transport them to places where food is abundant, and often from the tropics to temperate regions. There are six or eight pyloric appendages, but no air blad- der. The common sucking fish of the Medi- terranean, so well known to the ancients (E. remora, Linn.), is from 12 to 18 in. long, shaped somewhat like a herring, dusky brown above and lighter below ; it has 17 or 18 plates on the head ; it occurs in the Atlantic ocean, on the British coasts, and has even wandered to the American shores. The Indian remora (K naucrates, Linn.) attains a length of 2 ft. ; it is olive-brown above and whitish on the sides, and has 22 to 24 plates in the sucking disk ; it is found in the Atlantic, on the American and African coasts, in the Eed sea, Indian ocean, and even around Japan. Peculiar to the Amer- ican coast is the white-tailed remora (E. albi- catida, Mitch.) ; it is from 1 to 2 ft. long, gray- ish slate above, with dark band on sides ; the disk has 21 plates ; it is not uncommon on the southern shore of Massachusetts and in Long Island sound, where it is generally called shark sucker. None of the species feed upon the fish to which they are attached, their food be- ing email fishes and floating animals. (See LUMP FISH.) SUCKLING, Sir John, an English poet, born at Whitton, Middlesex, in 1609, died in Paris probably in 1642. He was educated at Cam- bridge, inherited an immense fortune from his father, comptroller of the royal household, and in 1631-'2 served as a volunteer under Gus- tavus Adolphus. He was afterward a mem- ber of the court of Charles L, and in 1639 he equipped a body of 100 horse for the royal service, but was disgraced by pusillanimous conduct in an encounter with the Scots near Dunse. In 1640 he was elected to the long parliament; but having joined in a plot to rescue Straff ord from the tower, he was com- pelled to take refuge in France. His literary remains include four plays, a number of short poems, chiefly amatory, and a treatise on "Ee- ligion by Eeason." His works were published by Tonson in 1709, and in 1836 appeared " Se- lections from his Works," with a memoir by the Eev. Alfred Suckling. A new edition of his "Poems, Plays, and Eemains"was pub- lished in London in 1874. SUCRE, or Chuqnisaca, the capital of Bolivia and of the department of Chuquisaca, on a plateau above the Eio de la Plata, about 10,000 ft. above the sea; lat. 19 20' S., Ion. 65 17' W. ; pop. in 1865, 26,664, the greater part of whom were Indians. It has regular, spacious, and clean streets, with well built houses, gen- erally of two stories. The principal buildings are the cathedral, in the Moresque style, the president's palace, the churches of San Miguel and San Francisco, two monasteries, three nun- neries, and the theatre. It is the see of an archbishop. SUCRE, Antonio Jos6 de, a South American soldier, born in Cumana, Venezuela, in 1793, assassinated near Pasto, Ecuador, in June, 1830. He joined the insurrectionary army in 1811,