OCR Text |
Show 238 PISCES. E. edentulus, Cuv.; Sloane, Jam., II, pl. 250, f. 2.(1) A spe· cies without teeth. America produces several others equally remarkable. In a second kind, as in the true Herrings, the body is compressed, and the abdomen trenchant and dentated.(2) The THRYSSA, Cuv. Onl differs from an Anchovy with a dentated abdomen, in the ex· treme ~rolongation of the maxillaries. The only species known are from the East Indies.(3) MEGALOPs, Lacep. The · aws of the Megalopes are formed like those of the true Her-rm• gs,J wh'1ch they also resemble in their gen. eral form, and the dis. · position of their fins; but their abdomen 1~ not trench~nt, nor. IS their body compressed; their jaws and p~latmes a.re furmshed with very. Short , small ' and crowded teeth; the1r branchial rays are much more numerous (from twenty-two to twenty-four) and the last ray of the dorsal, and frequently of the anal, is lengthened into a filament as in the Chatoessus. America produces a species, the Savalle or .!J.palike, Clupea cyprinoides, Bl., 403, from Plumier; Ci. gigantea, Sh.; Camaripu guagu, Marcgr., which attains the length of twelve feet, and has but fifteen rays in the dorsal; there is a filament also on the anal. There is a second in India, the Megalope filamenteux, La· cep., V, xiii, 3, improperly confounded with the first, under the false name of .!J.palike, Russ. 203. It has seventeen dorsal rays. ELoPs, Lin. All the characters of a Megalops, but the dorsal filament wanting, and the form somewhat more elongated; twenty rays and upwards in the branchial membrane; the superior and inferior edge of the caudal armed with a flat spine. Species are found in both hemispheres.( 4) (1) AddEngr.lemniscatus, Cuv., orpiquitinga, Marcgr., 159, Spix, XXIII;-the Stolepltore commersonien, Lacep., Y, XIJ, 1, or Nattoo, Huss., 187, probably the JJ.tlterina australis, White;: p. 196, f. 1 ;-the Clupee wbercuieuse, Lacep., V, P· 460. N.H. That his Cl. raie d'argent does not differ from his Stolepltore. (2) Clupea atlterinoides, Bl. ;-Cl. telara, Buch., IT, 72;-Cl. pltasa, ld., P· 240;-Poorwa, Huss., 194. (3) Clupea setirostris, Brousson., Dec. Icth., copied Encycl. 316;-Cl. mystus, or Pedda poorawalt, Russ., 190;-Cl. mystax, Bl. Schn., 8$;-Pootawalt, Itussel, . 189. ( 4) The Elops of the Indi:.tn Ocean is the .flrgentina maclmata of Fot·skal, and MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 239 HuTIRINus, Commers. The jaws formed like those of a Herring; the body round and elongated, as in Elops and Megalops, and the prominent snout of an Anchovy. The mouth is slightly cleft, small crowded teeth in the jaws, and twelve or thirteen branchial rays; particularly distinguished by rounded, closely set teeth on the tongue, vomer, and palatines. From bolh Oceans. The Elopes and Butirini are beautiful, silvery fishes, with numerous bones and creca, that attain a considerable size.( 1) CHIROCENTRus, Cuv. The edge of the upper jaw, as in the Herring, formed by the intermaxillaries, and the sides by the maxillaries, which are united with them, both, together with the lower jaw, being furnished with a row of stout conical teeth, the two middle anterior upper ones of which, as well as all those of the lower jaw, are of extraordinary length. The tongue and branchial arches are bristled with teeth resembling those of a card, but there are none on the palate or vomer. There are seven or eight rays in the branchia:, the external ones very broad. Above and beneath each pectoral is a long, membranous, and pointed scale, and the pectoral rays are very hard; the body is elongated, compressed, and trenchant, but not dentated beneath; the ventrals are extremely small, and the dorsal is shorter than the anal, opposile to which it is placed. The stomach is a long, slender, and poinled sac, the pylorus is near the cardia, and the natatory bladder long and nat•row. I find no creca. the Mugil salmoneus of Forster, Bl., Schn., p. 121; although he gives it but four branchial rays, I have ascertained this by the figure. It is also the Jinagow, Russ., 179, and the Synode cltinois, Lacep., V, x, 1. The American Elops is the Mugil appendiculatus of Bose, or the Mugilomore .llnne-Catoline, Lacep., V, 398; the Pounder, Sloane, Jam., II, p. 250, f. 1. The .llrgentina carolina, L., is also the same fish, although he quotes but a single bad figure, Catesb ., II, xxiv; but the Saurus maximus, Sloane, 11, pl. 251, 1, usually cited as synonymous with the Elops, is of a totally different genus. It is the Esox synodus, L., Synode fascl, Lacep., or, what is the same thing, one of our Sauri that had lost its adipose fin. (I) The But. banana, Commers., Lacep., V, 45, which is also his Synode re. ~ard, Id., V, pl. viii, f. 2, or Esox vulpes, L., Catesu., II, i, 2, cop. Encycl., 294, ts a fish found on the Atlantic Coast of America, the same as the Ubarana of Marcgr., Brazil, 154, or Clupea brasiliensis, HI., Schn.; as the .llmia of Brown; as the .11/hula gonwyncltus, Bl., Schn., p. 4·3:2, or· .IJ.lbula Plumieri, I d. pl. 86; as the Clupee macrocepltale, Lacep., V, xiv, 1, and as the Macabi, IJarra, pl. 35, f. 4, or ..! J.mia imrnaculata, Bl., Schn., 451. Spix has two of them, pl. xxiii, 2, and XXtv.-The Butirinus of India is the .flrgentina glossodonia, I~orsk., or JJ.rgentine \ |