A Natural History for Young People: Our Animal Friends in Their Native Homes / including mammals, birds and fishes

This fourth large family of bony Fishes includes the Perch family, which is altogether a fresh water Fish; and many curious species which are found in the sea—like the Weevers, Mullets, Gurnards, Labrus, Frog-fish and Sword-fish. The well known Mackerel family is also included among the Fishes with spiny fins, with the Tunny and the curious Archer-fish.

The Weevers are a good type of these spiny-finned Fishes. They bury themselves in the sand, and are dangerous to the fishermen because of the serious wounds which they inflict with their spines.

These fascinating Sea-scorpions are remarkable for the hideous appearance of their heads, quite as much as for the beautiful markings of their body. The head is mailed and cuirassed in a wonderful manner; it is very large in proportion to the body, broad in front and compressed at the sides, and completely covered with large spines and fringed barbs; the longest of these are over the eyes, and the broadest near the corners of the mouth; the jaws are furnished with a great number of small sharp teeth; the tongue is loose, thin and pointed at the end; the lips are also movable, and the upper lip is composed of two bones which form a furrow in the middle where they join; the nostrils are single and lie midway between the mouth and the eyes. The whole effect of these Fishes, so different from other species, gives them a disagreeable and even hideous appearance, and has procured for them various names, such as Sea-frog, Sea-devil, Sea-scorpion, and others equally significant. And whether we consider the curious and remarkable appearance of the Red Gurnard as he moves along the sandy bottom, seeming to walk on the strange projections that look like huge toes growing out from the front fins—or the still more startling effect of the Flying Gurnard—it is not surprising that superstitious fishermen have told remarkable tales of these strange Fish in the past.

Twelve species of the Trigula or Gurnards are known. The commonest species are the Grey Gurnard—a silvery grey Fish, clouded with brown, and speckled with black. This is found in British seas. The Red Gurnard is commonly found in the Mediterranean. This is a fine, bright red-rose color, paler beneath and more vivid about the fins. The Perlon or Sapharine Gurnard is a large species, handsomely marked with green and blue hues.

The Flying Gurnard is much like the other Flying-fishes in the formation of the front fins into wings, and in the manner of their flight, but their appearance is very different because of their queer armored head and the large eyes, as well as the brilliant markings peculiar to the Gurnard family.

THE SWORD-FISH.

The Sword-fish, so called from the upper jaw being elongated into a formidable spear or sword, was known to the ancients, and has borne this name which recalls its important characteristic, from very early times. And while the Saw-fish, which belongs to the group of Cartilaginous Fishes, and a species of Sword-whale, have also been known as Sword-fishes, this species—scientifically known as Xiphias gladius—is the real, and the original Sword-fish.

This Fish attains a great size, being found in the Mediterranean and Atlantic from five to six feet in length. Its body is covered with minute scales, the sword forming three-tenths of its length. On the back it bears a single long dorsal fin; the tail is keeled, the lower jaw is sharp, the mouth toothless, the upper part of the Fish bluish-black, merging into silver beneath.

It seems to have a natural desire to exercise towards and against all the arm with which nature has furnished it; it darts with the utmost fury upon the most formidable moving bodies; it attacks the Whale; and there are numerous and well authenticated instances of ships being perforated by the jaw of this powerful creature, while the toothed spear of the Saw-fish has been found fast in the body of a Whale which it has pierced.

In 1725, some carpenters having occasion to examine the bottom of a ship, which had just returned from the Tropical seas, found the lance of a Sword-fish buried deep in the timbers of the ship. They declared that, to drive a pointed bolt of iron of the same size and form to the same depth, would require eight or nine blows of a hammer weighing thirty pounds. From the position of the weapon it was evident that the Fish had followed the ship while under full sail; it had penetrated through the metal sheathing, and three inches and a half beyond, into the solid frame.

The Sword-fish has obstinate combats with the Saw-fish, and even the Shark, and it is supposed that when he attacks the bottom of a vessel he takes that sombre mass for the body of an enemy.

THE ARCHER FISH.

The idea of a Shooting-fish seems quite as odd as that of a Flying-fish, yet the Archer-fish often uses this method of bringing down its prey. For this reason he is sometimes known as the Toxotes—the word meaning a bowman or archer. Although the Archer-fish belongs to this fourth family of bony Fishes—those with spiny fins—it is not only unlike any other species of this family, but unlike any other Fish known; in that it is the only one that goes out gunning for its prey. It possesses the power of spurting water from its mouth with such force as to bring down Insects from aquatic plants within its reach. As it lives almost entirely upon these insects, it may take rather tedious gunning at times to secure enough to satisfy its hunger, and it is decidedly interesting to watch this small archer on one of his hunting expeditions.

In these four groups of cartilaginous Fish, and the four distinct sections of bony Fishes, with their numerous sub-divisions, may be classified all the different Fishes that have become known, through all the careful research of modern Naturalists. Not that they could all be described in this limited space; nor, in fact, even given separate mention. Very few have a clear idea of how many different kinds of Fishes there really are. In the long ago, when Naturalists first made a study of the inhabitants of the water, and began to write the results of their researches, it seemed surprising to them to discover nearly a hundred distinct species. In their different families, Pliny, the Naturalist, described ninety-four species of Fish. Later Linnaeus characterized four hundred and seventy-eight. And, marvellous as it may seem, the Naturalists of the present day know upwards of thirteen thousand, a tenth of which are fresh water Fishes. While all these numerous species may possess some distinct peculiarity, they are sure to possess other characteristics that will classify them with some of these families. And after becoming familiar with the characteristics of this limited number of groups and families we may feel acquainted, to a certain extent, with this whole great throng of nearly thirteen thousand Fishes.

We often hear the fact regretted, that so many of the larger Fish live almost entirely by devouring smaller species. And taking into consideration the immense quantities consumed by mankind each year, not only as they are caught fresh from the water, but the hundreds and thousands of barrels and cans of dried and pickled Fish that are shipped all over the world from the great Salmon and Cod and Herring fisheries, it is sometimes thought that, in time, the different species of Fish must surely be exhausted.