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Show 154 PISCES. We might also distinguish those species which have no teeth,(!) and those, the points of whose second dorsal and anal are extremely elongated, which I have designated by the name of C~TULJE.(2) We are thus gradually led to fishes that may be umted under the common name of VoMER, Which become more and more compressed and elevated, where the armature of the lateral line successively diminishes, and the skin becomes fine, satiny, and without any apparent scales, which have no other teeth than very short, fine and crowded ones, and which are distinguished from each other by various prolongations of some of their fins. Linnreus and Bloch placed them, but improperly, in the genus ZEus. We divide them as follows: OusTus, Cuv. Differing from Citula, inasmuch as the middle rays of the second dorsal are not branched, but merely articulated, and are extended into long filaments.(3) ScYRrs, Cuv., The same filaments, and nearly a similar form; but the spines which should form the first dorsal are entirely hidden in the edge of the second. The ventrals are, short.( 4) BLEPHARrs, Cuv. Long filaments to the second dorsal and anal; ventrals much prolonged, the spines of the first hardly piercing the skin;(s) body eJe. vated; the profile not more curved than usual. GALLUs, Cuv. The profile more vertical than in Blepharis, but all the other cha· racters similar.(6) Kleinii, Bl. 347, 2;-Sc. Samun, Forsk;-Kuguroo-parah, Russ. 145;-7'alan·parah, I d. 150, or Scomb. malabaricus, Bl., Schn.;-Wootin-parah, Russ. 148. (1) Scomb. speciosus, Lacep.lll, 1, 1, or Polooso·parah, Russ. 149, of which the Car. petaurista, Geoff., Egypt., XXITI, 1, appears to be the adult. (2) Tchawil-parah, Russ. 151;-Mais-paralt, Id. 152. (3) The species is new. (4) The Gal. d'Jllexandrie, Geoff., Eg., Poiss., XXII, 2. (5) Zew ciliaris, Bl. 196;-Zeus sutor, Cuv., the Cordonnier of Martinique. (6) Zeus gallus, L., Bl., or Gurrah-parah, Russ. 57;-Cltewoola·parak, Id. 58. ACANTIIOPTEH.YGII. 155 ARGYRErosus, Cuv. The profile still more elevated; the first dorsal decidedly marked, and some of its rays prolonged into filaments like those of the second. Their ventrals also are much lengthened.( 1) In · VOMER, properly so called, --J The body is compressed, and the profile vertical, as in GALLus and ARGYREiosus, but there is no prolongation to. any of the fins.(2) The genus ZEus, Lin. After abstracting the Galli and Argyreiosi, &c., comprehends fishes with a compressed body, an extremely protractile mouth like that of the Menides, and having but few and weak teeth. They require however to be greatly subdivided. ZEus, Cuv. Dorsal emarginate, its spines accompanied by long slips of the membrane; a series of bifurcated spines along the base of the dorsal and the anal. Z.faber, L., Bl. 41. (The Common Dory.) Yellowish, with a round black spot on the flank; an excellent fish, that is sometimes styled the Fish of St Peter. Z. pungio, Cuv.; Rond. 328, is another species, distinguished by a stout bifurcated spine on the shoulder. From the Mediterranean. CAPRos, Lacep. · The emarginated dorsal of the Dories, and a mouth still more protractile; but no spines along the dorsal and anal; the entire body covered with very rough scales. But one species is known, Zeus aper, L., which is small and yellowish. It inhabits the Mediterraoean.(3) The (1) Zeus vomer, Mus., Ad. Fred. xxxi, 9, and better, Bl. 93, 2, or .llbacatuia, Marcgr. 161;-Zeus rostratus, Mitch., op. cit. 11, 1. N.B. The Zeus niger, Bl., Schn., is founded on a mistake; a figure of the Jlbacatuia, in the work of MarcgraYe, P· 145, having been placed next to the description of the Guaperva, or Chretodon arcuatus. The Selene argentee, Lacep. IV, ix, 2, is an Jlbacatuia, whose first dorsal and ventra.ls had been worn. His 8elene quadrangulaire, is the Chret. faber. (2) ZeuBBetapinnit, Mitch., op. cit. I, 9, Labat., Voy. de Desmarchais, I, P· 312. (3) It is also the Perea pu.ailla of Brunnich. |
