CYCLOPTERUS, the sucker, in natural history, a genus of fishes of the order Cartilaginei. Generic character : head obtuse ; tongue short and thick ; teeth in the jaws ; body short, thick, and with out scales ; ventral fins united into an oval concavity, forming an instrument of adhesion. There are ten species, of which the principal is C. lumpus, the lump-sucker. The shape of this fish is very similar to that of the bream, and it sometimes grows to the weight of seven pounds. Beneath the pectoral fins it possesses an oval aperture, surrounded with a soft muscular substance, edged with small thready appendages, which act as so many ckspers. By this appara tus the sucker is enabled to adhere with extreme tenacity to any substance, and in several cases it has been found impos sible to make it quit its hold, but by the application of a force which has lacerated and destroyed it. M. Pennant mentions that one of these fishes, soon after being caught, was flung into a pail of water con taining several gallons, and attached itself in a few moments so strongly at the bot tom of the vessel, that, on taking the fish by the tail, the whole vessel was lifted, together with its contents, and the fish appeared to skew no disposition to quit its hold. These fishes are eaten com
monly in Greenland, where their oily quality renders them particularly pleas ing. In England they are thought taste less and Abby. In Scotland, near Caith ness, suckers are found in immense shoals. They are pursued on that coast with the most destructive havock by the seals, which there also abound. During the season in which these ravages are com mitted, the spot under which they take place is distinguishable by the smooth and oily surface of the water for a consi derable extent. The skins of the suckers, whiCh are rejected by the seals, are also found in vast abundance on the shores. For a variety of this species, called C. pavonius, or the Pavonian sucker, see Pisces, Plate. III. fig. 3.