_Inimicus japonicus_, common in Japan, has a depressed and monstrous head and a generally bizarre appearance. It is usually black in color but is largely bright red when found among red algæ. A related species, _Inimicus aurantiacus_, is blackish when near shore, but lemon-yellow in deep water. (See frontispiece.) A related species in the East Indies is _Pelor filamentosum_, called _Nohu_ or _Gofu_ in Polynesia. [Illustration: FIG. 373.—Lion-fish or Sausolele (the dorsal spines envenomed), _Pterois volitans_ (Linnæus). Family _Scorpænidæ_. (From a specimen from Samoa.) ] Still more monstrous are the species of _Synanceia_, short, thick-set, irregularly formed fishes, in which the poisoned spines reach a high degree of venom. The flesh in all these species is wholesome, and when the dorsal spines are cut off the fishes sell readily in the markets. These fishes lie hidden in cavities of the reefs, being scarcely distinguishable from the rock itself. (See Fig. 168, Vol. I.) The black _Emmydrichthys vulcanus_ of Tahiti lies in crevices of lava, and could scarcely be distinguished from an irregular lump of lava-rock. [Illustration: FIG. 374.—Black Nohu, or Poison-fish, _Emmydrichthys vulcanus_ Jordan. A species with stinging spines, showing resemblance to lumps of lava among which it lives. Family _Scorpænidæ_. From Tahiti. ] A related form, _Erosa erosa_, the daruma-okose of Japan, is monstrous in form but often beautifully colored with crimson and gray. In _Congiopus_ the very strong dorsal spines begin in the head, and the mouth is very small. Dr. Gill makes this genus the type of a distinct family, _Congiopodidæ_. Besides these, very many genera and species of small poison-fishes, called okose in Japan, abound in the sandy bays from Tokio to Hindostan and the Red Sea. Some of these are handsomely colored, others are fantastically formed. _Paracentropogon rubripinnis_ and _Minous adamsi_ are the commonest species in Japan. _Trachicephalus uranoscopus_ abounds in the bays of hina. _Snyderina yamanokami_ occurs in Southern Japan. [Illustration: FIG. 375.—_Snyderina yamanokami_ Jordan & Starks. Family _Scorpænidæ_. Satsuma, Japan. ] But few fossil _Scorpænidæ_ are recorded. _Scorpænopterus siluridens_, a mailed fish from the Vienna Miocene, with a warty head, seems to belong to this group, and _Ampheristus toliapicus_, with a broad, depressed head, is found in the London Eocene, and various Miocene species have been referred to _Scorpæna_. _Sebastodes rosæ_ is based on a fragment, probably Pleistocene, from Port Harford, California. [Illustration: FIG. 376.—_Trachicephalus uranoscopus_. Family _Scorpænidæ_. From Swatow, China. ] The small family of the _Caracanthidæ_ consists of little fishes of the coral reefs of the Pacific. These are compressed in form, and the skin is rough with small prickles, the head being feebly armed. The species are rare and little known, brown in color with pale spots.