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Show 124 PISCES. mouth small and but slightly dentated, and the body without scales.( 1) PELOR. Th tire dorsal an d pa Ia t.I U e te·e th of the Scorprenre; no scales on th eb eond y· two free rays un d er the pectoral; anterior part ofthe hf ead fl ett ed.' eyes proxi. mate, c1 o rs al spines very high, and almo. st ree; ha enb ' b'tal spm. e o f A pi. s tesi· 5 wanting- , and their fantastic shape t e su or 1 and monstrous aspect are a lone suffici. ent to distinguish them from all other fishes. They inhabit the Indian Ocean.(2) ' SYNANCEIA, Bl. Schn. The appearance o f tll es e fishes is quite as hideous as that of a Pelor; their head is rough, tuberculous, uncompressed, frequently envelop~d m• a 1a x an d f u ngous skin·' their pectoral rays. are a•l l branched; thm dorsa 1s ent1· re, an d tl1ey have no teeth, neither m the vomerf nor palat·m es; t h e1· r f r1· g \l tful appearance induces the fishermen o t(h e) Indian Ocean, which they inhabit, to consider them as venomous. 3 MoNOCENTRis, Bl. Schn.-LEPISACANTHus, Lacep. A singular genus; the body is short, thick, and completely mailed with enormous angular, rough, and carinated scales; four or five stout free spines supply the place of the first d~rsal; each ventral , consists of an immense spine, in the angle of which a few soft. and almost imperceptible rays are concealed; head bulky and maile~; front gibbous; mouth large; short crowded teeth (en velours ~as) m the jaws and palatines, but none in the vomer; eight ~ays m the branchire. But one species is known; the · .ft'lon. japonica, Bl. Schn. pl. xxiv; Lepiaacanthe japonais, La· cep. Six inches long, of a silvery white. }~rom the sea of Ja· pan.(4) (1) It is the Blennius torvus of Gronov., Act. Helvet. VII, pl. iii, copied, Walb., Ill, pl. 2, f 11 or Ccrypluena torva, Bl. Schn., and some new species ... (2) Pel. obscurum, Cnv., or Scorprena didactyla, Pall. Spic. Zool. VII, XXVI, tv; Seb., III, xxviii, 3, or Trig/a ruhicunda, Hornstedt, Stokhol. Mem., IX, iii, and some new species to he described in onr 4th vol. (3) Scorprena lwrrida, L., Lacep., II, xvii, 2; at}d not so well, Bl., 183;-the Sc. bracltion, Lacep. HI, xii, 1, or Synanceia ve1·rucosa, .Hl., Schn., pl. 45;-Syn. bicapillata, Laccp. II, xi, 3. (4·) Gasterosteus japonicus, Houtt., Harl. Mem., XX, part II, 299, or Scitena japonica, Thunb., New Stockh . Mem., XI, iii, copied Bl., Schn., pL xxiv. ACANTHOPTERYGII. 125 GASTEROSTEus, Cuv.( 1) ., The cheek mailed, although the head is neither tuberculous nor spinous, as is the case in the preceding genera. Their peculiar cha· racter consists in the freedom of the dorsal spines, which do not form a fin, and in the pelvis being united to humerals larger than usual, and thus furnishing the abdomen with a sort of bony hauberk. Their ventrals, placed farther back than the pectorals, are nearly reduced to a single spine; there are but three rays to the branchire. Some of them abound in the fresh waters of Europe. Two species are confounded under the name of Stickleback,. Oasterosteua aculeatua, L.; which have three free dorsal spines; but the entire side of one of them, G. trachurua, Cuv. Bl., pl. 53, f. 3, is covered with scaly plates to the very end of the tail. These plates are only found in the other, G. gymnurus, Cuv. Willughb., 341, on the pectoral region. Both these species are sometimes so abundant in certain rivers in England and the north of Europe, that they are used to manure the land, feed hogs, &c. ( 2) G. pungitius, L.; BI., 53, 4, is the smallest of the European fresh water fishes; nine very short spines on the back; sides of the tail with carinated scales; another closely allied species in· habits the same streams, G. lrevia, Cuv., in which this armature is wanting. A separate subgenu~ might be made of the G. spinochia, L.; Bl., 53, I, a salt water species of an eJon· gated and slender form, with fifteen short dorsal spines, and the entire lateral line covered with carinated scales. Its abdominal shield is divided in two; and, besides the spine, there are two small rays in the ventral . After this family we place the 0REOSOMA, Cuv. A small oval fish, whose whole body, above and beneath, is studded with thick cones of a heavy substance. There are four of them on (1) N.B. This name, wi1ich signifies bony belly, is only applicable to the Gas- · terostei as we have defined them, and not to several of the Scomberoides, united with them by Linnreus on account of their dorsal spines being free: these latter we refer to our Lloau. (2) Neighbouring species or three-spined Sticklebacks: G. argyropomu1, Cuv.; ~G. br~ycentrus, Cuv. 1.:...G. tetracantlttils, Cuv., three Italian species;-G. noveatensia, Cuv.;-G. niger, Cnv., or biculeatus, Mitchill, Ann. New York Lye., I, 1, !O;-G, quadratus, Id., lb., f. 11;-G. cataphraclus, Tiles. Mem. Acad. Petersb.', lll, viii, 1. |