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Show 96 PISCES. abdomen, sometimes suspended to the apparatus of the shoulder, or are totally wanting. We thus arrive at the three orders of the MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES, the SuBBRACHIATI and the APODEs, each of which com prizes certain natural families to be described. The first is particularly numerous. It is impossible, however, to apply this mode of division to the AcANTHOPTERYGII; and their subdivision in any other way than by that of natural families is a problem that I have hitherto vainly endeavoured to solve. Fortunately many of these families· are possessed of characters nearly as exact as those which could be given to true orders. It is, besides, impossible to assign to the families of fishes, the same marked gradation that is visible among those of the Mammalia. Thus the Chondropterygians are connected with Serpents on the one hand by the organs of the senses, and some of them even by those of generation; while the imperfec· tion of the skeleton in others allies them to the Mollusca and Worms. As to the Ordinary Fishes, if any one system is found more developed in some than in others, it is not sufficiently pre· eminent, nor does it exercise a sufficient influence over the whole, to compel us to pay any regard to it in a methodical arrangement. We will successively treat of these two series, commencing with the most numerous, that of Ordinary Fishes, and placing at its head the order richest in genera and species. ORDER I. ACANTHOPTERYGII. The Acanthopterygii form the first and by far the most numerous division of Ordinary Fishes. They are recognized by the spines which occupy the place of the first rays of their dorsal, or which alone support the first fin of the back, where ACANTliOPTim.YGII. 97 there are two ; so.metimes instead of a first dorsal, there are only a few free spmes. The first rays of their anal are also spines, and there is generally one to each ventral. The relations between the Acanthopterygii are so multiplied, and their different natural families present so much variety in t?e apparent characters which we might suppose would indicate orders or other subdivisions, that it has been found impossible to divide them otherwise than by these same natural families, which we are compelled to leave together. FAMILY I. PERCOIDES.( 1) This family is so called because its type is the Common Perch. It comprehends fishes with oblong bodies covered with scales that are generally hard or rough, and whose operculum or preoperculum, and frequently both, have dentated or spinous edges, and whose jaws, the fore-part of the vomer. and genera11y the palatine bones, are furnished with teeth. , The species are extremely numerous, particularly in the seas of hot climates; their flesh is generally wholesome and agreeable. . In a vast proportion of these Perches, the ventral fins are mserted under the pectorals: they form a first division which may be called PERCOIDES TuoRACICI. They were nearly all comprised by Linnfrus in his genus PEReA, b~t we have been compelled to divide them as follows, from the number of the branchial rays, that of the dorsal fin and the nature of the teeth. In the first subdivision we find seven rays in the branchire two fins on the back, and all the teeth small and crowded.(2) 8~0~~ my first edition this family also comprehended the Buccre Loricatre, the s:: • ' es and the Sparoi"des. It was necessary to detach these three new families ~1r omh l t, and I think I h ave b een fio rtunate enough to d1· scover suff•iC .i ent characters 10r t at purpose. (2) The original express1' o n en ve l oura ·1 s one of tl1 e many ·m stanccs ·m wlu· ch the VoL. Il.-N \ |
