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Show 192 , PISCES. barely perceptible to the touch; the body oblong, head obtuse, and the lateral line continuous; the dorsal and anal enveloped by scales nearly to the .summit of the spines. . 0. genizara, Cuv.; Parra. pt. xx1, f. 1. The only species known; of a purple red. From the Antilles. GoMPHosus, Lacep.-ELoPs, Commers. Labroides, with an entirely smooth head, as in Julis; but owing to the prolongation of the intermaxillaries and maxillaries, which are united by the teguments as far as the small opening of the mouth, the muzzle is made to resemble a long thin tube.(l) They are taken in the Indian Ocean, and the flesh of certain species is held in the highest estimation. (2) XIRICIITHYs, Cuv. These fishes resemble a Labrus as to form, but are much com· pressed; the front descends suddenly towards the mouth in a tren· chant and almost vertical line, formed by the .ethmoid and the ascend· ing branches of the intermaxillaries. Their body is covered with large scales; the lateral line is interrupted; the jaws are armed with a range of conical teeth, the central ones longest; the pharynx is paved with hemispherical teeth; the intestinal canal is continuous with two flex· ures without creca; no cul-de-sac to the stomach; a tolerably long natatory bladder. Until we arranged them otherwise, they were always placed by naturalists among the Coryphrenre, from which they greatly differ, both internally and externally. They approxi· mate most to Labrus, only differing in the profile of the head.(3) The greater number have a naked head. Such is X. novacula; Oorypluena novacula, L.; Rondel.; 146, Salv. !17. Red, variously striped with blue. The flesh is esteemed.(4) (1) Gomphoaua viridia, Cuv., or G. Lacepede, Quoy and Gaym. Voy. }'reycin. Zool. pl. lv, f. 2;-G. creruleua, Lacep. III, pl. v, f. 1, or .ll.carauna lcmgirostru, $evastianof, Nov. Act. Petrop. xiii, t. XI;-G. variegatua, Lacep., lb. f. 2 • . Gomplwaua, from oyo(o'q>oc, cuneus, clavus. (2) Renard, Poissons de lamer des Indes, part II, pl. xii, f, 109. Commerson, however, says that the creruleua is but indifferent food. (3) The sharp edge of the head of the Coryphamre is owing to the interparietal crest; their scales are small and soft; their creca numerous. See 1\'tem. du Mus, II, 324. (4) The Coryph.lineolata, Uafin., Caratt., 33, does not differ from then()tl(lCU/a,· but the Novacula corypluena, of Risso, is nothing more than the Centrolophus. The .Coryph. crerulea, Bl., 176~ is a Scllrus.-Add, Cor. psittacus, L., and some new spec1es. ACANTHOPTERYGII. 193 Some of them have a scaly cheek,( l) and others are distinguished by small scales.(2) CnRoMis, Cuv.(3) The lips, protractile intermaxillaries, pharyngeals, dorsal filaments, and port of a Labrus; but the teeth of the pharynx and jaws resemble those of a card, and there is a range of conical ones in front. The vertical fins are filamentous, those of the belly being even frequently extended into long threads; the lateral line is interrupted; the stomach forms a cul-de-sac, but has no creca. 0. vulgaris; Sparus chromis, L. Ronde!., 152. The Common or Black Ooracinus of the ancients. A small chesnut-brown fish, taken by thousands in the Mediterranean. 0. niloticus; Lab. niloticus, Hasselq., 346; Sonnini, pl. x.xvii, f. 1; the White, or Egyptian Coracinus of the ancients.( 4) Found in the Nile; it is two feet long, and is considered the best fish of Egypt. CYoHLA, Bl. Schn. Teeth, small and crowded, forming a broad band, and differing from Chromis in this, as well as in the greater elongation of the . body.( s) (1) Corypham.a pentadactyla, BI. 173, or Blennius maculis, 5, &c. Ankarstrom, Stockh. Mem. pl. iii, f. 2. Linnreus has confounded it with the five-toed fish of Nieuhof, Willbughb, A pp. pl. viii, f. 2, which is a mere Pilot-fish, thereby inducing M:. de Lace pede to make his genus Hemipteronotua of it, whose characters by no means correspond to this Xirichthys. (2) Raaon l'ecluae, Q.uoy and Gaym. Voy. Freycin., Zool., pl. lxv, f. 1. {3) Xpof-'1~, ICP'~-'"• /CPff-'11, Greek names of an unascertained fish. (4) Add, Labrus punctatua, lll., 295, 1;-Labrefilamenteux, Lac., III, xviii, 2;Lab. 15-epinea, Id., lb. XXV, 1;-Spm-us aurinamenais, BI., 277, 2;-CluJJtodon suratensia, Bl., 217?;-Perca bimaculata, BI., 310, 1. (5) I strike out many species from the genus CrcnLA as constituted by Bloch, but I leave there, C. saxatilia, Bl., 309;-C. ocellaris, BI., Schn. pl. lxvi;-C. argus, Valenc., App. Humb. Obs. Zool. tom. II, p.109;-perhaps the C. brasiliemis, Bl., 310, 2, and new species. But the C. erytlu-ura, Bl., 261, and the C. argyrea, are GEnREs; the C. cuning, a C.iESio; the C. brama, a C.&NTH.A.Rus; the C. macrophtalma, Bl., 268, the C.japonica, Id., 277, 1, the C. cynodon, Id., 278, 1, belong to D.ENT.EX, the 0. aurinamensis, Id., 277, 2, and the C. bimaculata, Id., 310, 1, to CunoMxs, the C. guttata, Bl., 312, the C. maculata, Id., 313, the C. punctata, Id., 314, to SERR.A.Nus, or, according to the system of Bloch, to BonaNus. The C. pelagica is the C.A.R.A.NXOMORE of Lact!p. or the CorypltaJna pelagica, L. It is eas· ily seen that Bloch was quite as unfortunate in the construction of his genus Crcau, as in that of GnAMMIBTES. The Hiatulre would be Labri without an anal fin; but a single species, however, · VoL. ll.-Z \ |