OCR Text |
Show 122 I • . PISCES.u • pectorals, as in Cottus, are articulated, they are simple and not branched. SooRPlENA, Cuv. The head spinous, tuberculous, and without scales; small crowded teeth in both jaws and palatines; irregular cutaneous cirri on differ-ent parts of the body. Sc. scropha, L.; BJ, 182; and better, Duham., sect. V, pl. iv. Redder; larger scales and more numerous cirri. Sc. poreus, L.; Bl., 181, and Duham., sect. V, pl. iii, x, 2. Browner; scales smaller and more numerous. They live in troops among the rocks; wounds from their spines are considered very dangerous.(!) The T JENIANOTES are Scorprenre with a strongly compressed body, whose very high dorsal is united to the caudal. SEBASTEs, Cuv. All the characters of the Scorprenre, except that there are no cutaneous cirri, and that the head is less rough and scaly. There is a large species in the northern Ocean called the Marulke, and in some places Carp, the Sebastes norvegicua, Cuv.; Perea marina, Penn.; Perea norvegica, Mull. Bonnat., Encycl. Meth. pl. Icthy. f. 210. It is red, and frequently up· wards of two feet in length. The Esquimaux dry it for food, and use its dorsal spines as needles. The Mediterranean pro· duces another, very similar, but which has fewer dorsal rays, the Sebastea imperialia, Cuv.; Seorprena daetyloptera, Laroche, Ann. Mus. XIII, pl. xxii, f. 9. Its palate is black, and it has no natatory bladder, althoug·h the contrary is the case with the preceding species.(2) . PTEROis, Cuv. Characters of the Scorprena, properly so called, except that there (1) Add, Sc. diabolu~, Cuv., Duham. sect. V, pl. iii, f. 1;-Sc. bufo, Cuv., Parr, XVlll, 1, c;-Sc. czrrlwsa, or Perea cirrltosa, Thunb., New. Stockhol. Mem., XIV, 1793, pl. vii, f. 2;-Sc. papillosa, Forst., Bl., Schn., 196;-Sc. Plumiel·, ~acep. I, xix, 3;-Sc. venosa, Cuv., Ross., 56, and several new species described m our 4th vol. (2) T?e pretended Sc. malabarica, lll. Schn., 190, is a Sebastes, identical with ~le ~pecles of the Mediterranean.-Add, Sc. capensis, Gmel.;-Holoc. albofa8ciatua, acep. IV, 372;-Perca variabi{is, '.Pall., or Epinephelus ciliatus, Tiles., Mem. Acad. Petersb., IV, 1811, pl. xvi, f. 1_ 6, ACANTHOPTERYGII. 123 are no palatine teeth, and that the dorsal and pectoral rays are excessively elongated. These fishes are from India, and are not less remarkable for this singular prolongation, than for the beauty of their colour-ing.( 1) BLEPSIAS. The head compressed; cheeks mailed; fleshy cirri under the lower jaw; five branchial rays; ventrals very small, and one very high dorsal divided by emarginations into three parts. The only species known are from the Aleutian islands.(2) APISTUS. The palatine teeth and entire dorsal of the the Scorpama; but the few rays of their pectorals are all branched. Their distinguishing character consists in a stout spine on the suborbital, which, inclining from the cheeks, becomes a most dangerous weapon.(3) They are all small. Those of the first division have a scaly body, and some of these have a free ray under a large pectoral.( 4) Others have ordinary pectorals, without free rays.( 5) In a second subdivision the body is naked; some of these also have a free ray under the pectoral,(6) and others not.(7) AGRIOPUS • . No suborbital spine; the dorsal still higher than in Apistes, and reaching between the eyes; the neck elevated, muzzle narrowed, (1) &. volitana, Gm., Bl., 184;-Sc. antennata, Bl., 185;-Sc. Kcenigii, Id. New Stokh. Mem., X, vii, and several new species described in our 4th vol. (2) Blennius villosus, Steller, or Tracldnus cirrhosus, Pall. Zoog., Russ., III, 237, No.l72. Blepsias is a name descended to us from the ancients without any characteristic designation. (3) 'A7rl>oc,per.fidus. (4) .!l.p. aplatus, Cuv., Russel, 160, B;-Scorp. carinata, Bl., Schn. (5) Cottu. australis, J. White, New South, IV, 266;-Ap. tamianotus, Cuv., Lacep. IV, iii, 2, a figure entitled Tamianote large raie, but one which has nothing in common with the T. large raie, of the text, IV, 303 and 304, which is a Malacanthus, and the same that is represented, III, xxviii, 2, under the name of Labre large raie;-Perca cottoi'des, L., Mus. Ad. Fred., II, p. 84. (6) .!J.p. minua, Cuv., Russel, 159;-Sc. monodactyle, Bl., Schn. (7) The species are new, and described, as well as others of the preceding sub· divisions, in our 4th vol. \ J' ;:,; :~ -·· |