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Show 118 PISCES. Tr. aspera; Viviani; Rondel., 296. Short muzzle, rough scales, velvet head; sharp crests along the dorsals; tem~le emarginate. These two last species are small, and peculiar to the Mediterranean. ( 1) . M. de Lacepede has separated three genera from Tngla: PRioNoTus, Lacep. American fishes resembling the Tr. ltirundo. Their pectorals, however, are longer, and can support them in the air; their distinguishing character, however, consists in a band of small crowded teeth on each palatine.(2) PERisTEnioN, Lacep. This genus has been separated from Trigla with still more prop~iet . The whole body is mailed with large hexagonal scales, formmg l:ngitudinal ridges; the muzzle is divided into two points, under which are branched cirri~ no teeth. P. cataphracta; Trigla cataphracta, L.; Rondel., 299. Red; a foot long; from the Mediterranean; the only species well known.(3) The best of these divisions is · DACTYLOPTERus, Lacep. So celebrated under the name of Flying Fishes; the subpectoral rays are much more num~rous and longer; and instead of being free, as in the preceding ones, they are united by a membrane so as to form a supernumerary fin, longer than the fish, which supports it in the air for some time. Thus they are seen flying above the surface of the water, in order to escape from Dolphins and other voracious fishes; they fall into it again, however, in a few seconds. Their extremely short snout has the appearance of a hare-lip; the mouth is beneath, and the jaws are only furnished with rounded teeth, in small patches (en petits paves); the helmet is flattened, t·ectangular, and rough; the preoperculum terminates in a long and stout spine, which forms a powerful weapon; all their scales areca· rinated. (1) Add the neighbouring species: Tr. papilio, Cuv.;-Tr. pl~akena;-Tr. sphinx, described in our fourth volume. . (2) Tr. punclata, Bl. 353 and 354;-Tr. strigata, Cuv., evolans, L., or lz~eat~, Mitchill, New York Trans., I, pl. iv, 4;-Tr. carolina, L., or palmipes, Mitchill, I, cit. ;-Tr. tribulus, Cuv. (3) The fig. ofBloch, 349, is incorrect, and gives too many rays to the second dorsal. Several other species are found in the East Indies. ACANTHOPTERYGII. 119 D. volitans; Trigla volitans, L.; Bl., 351, the Mediterranean species, is a foot long; brown above; reddish beneath; fins black, variously marked with blue. D. orientalis, Cuv. Russel, 161, is a neighbouring species from the Indian Ocean. CEPHALACANTHus, Lacep. Nearly the form, and particularly the head of the Dactylopteri; differing from them, however, in the total absence of supernumerary fins or wings. C. spinarella; Gasterosteus spinarella, L.; Mus. Ad. Fred., pl. xxxii, f. 5. A very small species from Gu~ana, and the only one known.(!) CoTTus, Lin. Head broad, depressed, mailed, and variously armed with spines or tubercles; two dorsals; teeth ft·ont of the vomer, but none on the palatines; six rays in the branchice, and only three or four in the ventrals. The inferior pect01·al rays, as in Trachinus, are not branched; few crecal appendages, and no natatory bladder. Those that inhabit fresh water have a nearly smooth head, and but one spine to the preoperculum; their first dorsal is very low. The most common species is C. gobio, L.; Bl. 39, 1, 2. (The River Bull-head.) A small blackish fish, four or five inches in length. The salt water species are more spinous, and when irritated their head becomes still more inflated. Such are C. scorpius, L.; Bl. 40. (The Father-Lasher.) Three spines on the preoperculum. C. bubalis, Euphrasen., New Stockh. Mem., VII, 95. Preoperculum with four spines, the first very long. C. quadricornis, Bl., 108. (The Four-Horned Bull-head.) Distinguished by four quadrate and bony tubercles. These three species are found in the European seas, the latter more particularly in the Baltic. America and the north of the Pacific Ocean produce much larger ones.(2) A small species is taken in the latter, whose singularity of form entitles it to notice: it is the C. diceraus, Pall.; Synanceia ce1·vus, Tilesius, Mem. Acad. (l) It is from Guiana, and not from India, as has always been asserted. T (2) C. 'llirginianus, Will., X, 15, or octodecim spinosus, Mitchill, New York, rans., IV, P· 380;-0. polyacantlwcephalw, Pall., Zool., Russ., &c. \ |