246 FISHES

In the Gobzde@ the ventral fins are united to form
an adhesive disc, one of the group being the common
lump-sucker (Cyclopterus lumpus). Another curious
group consists of the angler-fishes, which have sea-
weed-like processes around them, and take things
easily on the sea-bottom, dangling tempting baits
over their huge, gaping mouths. The next group
are the blennies, the biggest of them being the sea-
cat, six feet long. Yet another contains the ribbon-
fish, and another the sea-surgeons, armed with a
lancet on each side of their tail; and another, the
Labyrinthict, to which belongs the climbing perch,
which can even scramble up trees. After them come
the Mugilide, or grey mullets, and then the Gastro-
stetd@, or sticklebacks, which, like more than a
dozen other fish, build nests for their young. The
sticklebacks have spines, instead of dorsal fins.
Those with fifteen spines are marine ; the other two,
with ten spines or three spines, live in brackish or
fresh water, the commonest being the three-spined
one. They are the last of the acanthopterygian, or
spiny-rayed fishes, in which the lower bones of the
pharynx are not united. The union of these bones
is the distinctive mark of the next assemblage. Of
this group the most familiar representatives are the
wrasses. These have a single dorsal fin, with a long
spinous and shorter soft portion, and they are mostly
recognisable by their thick lips. Some of them live
on molluscs and crustaceans, and the teeth on their
coalesced pharyngeal bones are specially adapted for
crushing shells, while all the teeth in the jaws are
conical, and arranged in a single series. A few of