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Show 212 PISCF..R. MoRMYnus, Lin.(1) A compresse d, o blon(Yco• scaly body'· the tail thin. at ba.s e, swe. lling out near the fi n; tll e h ead covered by a naked, tl. uck skm, wl.u ch . enve· 1 la and branchial rays, leavmg no openmg m the lopes tb1e operct~ 1 fissure a circumstance which has led some na· latter ut a ver 1ca ' tura1 1. sts to asser t that these fishes have no opercula, although they are as per1r ec t as 1·n any other' and which has caused the number of t h e1· r b ranc h'1 a 1 rays to be reduced to one, although the. y have five or s1· x. Th e open·m g of the· mouth is small, and a.l most hke that of the mamm1· re rous an1·mal termed the Ant-Eater.; 1ts angles are formed by the maxillaries. Slender teeth, emar~mated at the ~nds, are planted in the intermaxillaries and lower JaW, and there 1s a long band of small crowded teeth on the under surface of the vomer and on the tongue. The stomach is a rounded sac, followed .by two creca, and a long slender intestine almost always envelo.ped wlth fat. The bladder i& long, ample, and simple. The Mormyr1 are 1·anked among the best fishes of the Nile. One portion of them has a cylindrical muzzle and a long dorsal.(2) A second has a cylindrical muzzle and a short dorsal.(3) It is very probable, as observed by M. Geoffroy, that it !s in.one of these two subdivisions that the Oxyrynchus of the Egyptians 1s to be found. In a third the snout is short and rounded, and the dorsal short.(4) In a fourth the forehead forms a gibbous projection in front of the mouth.(5) ( 1) Mop~upo~, the Greek name of a littoral fish variously colour~d, probably the Sparus mormyrus, L. It was applied by Linnceus, not very happ1ly, to fresh.wa· ter fishes of a uniform hue. (2) The Morm. d' Hasselquist, Geoff. Poiss. du Nil., pl. vi, f. 2;-M. caschive, Hnsselq., 398, which appears to me to differ from the preceding in several im· portant characters, judging from the description;-the M. oxyrinque, Geoff. pl. vi, f. 1, which is the Oentriscus niloticus, Schn., pl. 30;-..M. commune, Forsk., 74, which does not agree with :my of the preceding by the description. ' ( 3) The Morm. de Denderah or anguilloi'des, L., Geoff. pl. vii, f. 2, confounded with the Oaschive of Hasselq., by Linnceus, but which is the Herst, Sonnini, Voy. en Eg., pl., xxii, f. 1. (4} The Morm. de Salheyhe, M. labialus, Geoff., pl. xxii, f. 1;-the M_· de Bel. beys, .Jitl. dorsalis, Id., pl. viii, f. 1, which is the Kasclwue, Sonnerat, pl. XXI, f. 3. (5) The Morm. bane or M. cyprinoi'des, L., Geoff., pl. viii, f. 2. N.B. The Nile produces several other unpublished species. MALACOPTERYCHJ AHDOMINALRS. 213 FAMILY III. SILURID£. This family is distinguished from all others of the order by the want of true scales, having merely a naked skin, or large osseous plates. The intermaxillaries, suspended under the ethmoid, form the edge of the upper jaw, and the maxillaries are reduced to simple vestiges, or are extended into cirri. The intestinal canal is ample, flexed, and without creca; the bladder large and adhering to a peculiar bony apparatus; the first ray of the dorsal and pectoral is, almost always, a strong articulated spine, and there is frequently an adipose one behind, as in the Salmon. SILURus, Lin.(l) A numerous genus, easily recognized by its nudity, the mouth cleft in the extremity of the snout, and in the greater number of the subgenera, by the strong spine which forms the first ray of the pectoral. It is so articulated with the bone of the shoulder that the fish can either depress it, or raise it perpendicularly, when it is immovable, constituting a dangerous weapon, wounds from which are considered as poisoned; an idea arising from the fact that tetanus frequently ensues. The head is depressed, the intermaxillaries suspended under the ethmoid and non-protractile, the maxillaries very short, but each of them almost always continued into a fleshy cirrus, to which are added others attached to the lower jaw or even to the nostrils. There is no suboperculum to the gill-cover; the two superior lobes of the stout and cordiform natatory bladder adhere to a peculiar bony apparatus, which is connected with the first ve.rtebrre. The stomach is a fleshy cul-de-sac, the intestine long, ample, and without creca.(2) {1) Silurus and Glanis, two ancient names, at one time employed as synonymes, and at another as the reverse, given to certain fishes of the Nile, Danube, and Orontes, and of some rivers of Asia Minor. It is almost certain that they belong to this genus. (2j Hasselquist attributes cceca to the Scltilbe; 1 have ascertained, however, that the contrary is the fact. \ |
