or Sucking Fish, a species of Echeneis (See *Encyc.*). M. Vaillant found, upon different parts of his enormous ray (See Ray in this Suppl.) about twenty small sucking fish, or remoras, fastened to firmly, that they did not drop off when he was hoisted on board. Some naturalists have said, that the head of the sucking fish is viscous on the lower part, and furnished with rough points similar to the teeth of a file; and, according to them, it is by means of these two qualities, its roughness and viscosity, that it is enabled to adhere to other fish.

"Figure to yourself (says one of them) a row of nineteen sharp-edged and dentated laminae, placed crookedly, and affixed immediately from the rim of the lower jaw, and you will have a just idea of the part with which the remora makes itself fast."

This description (says Vaillant) is exact as far as relates to the figure and number of the dentated laminae; but it places them on the lower part of the head, whereas they are, in reality, on the upper. Accordingly, when the remora fixes itself, it is obliged to turn upon its back, with its belly upward.

If the two white fish, however, that posted themselves on the arms of the ray, and served him as pilots, be of the remora species, as he is inclined to think, the laminae by which that variety adheres to other fishes must be on the lower part of the body, since the two pilots continued in their natural position, and had no occasion to turn over to fix themselves at their post.