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Show 160 PISCES. P Is Gronov -OLIGOFODUS, Lacep. TERACL ' ' C hrenre· but the scales are larger, the Teeth and head of the oryN nd ;he dorsal and anal as high as ventrals jugular and very sma ' a the fish itself. 1 z:rera Pall Spic. Zool., Fasc., VIII, P z:r • Co¥'1/p,trena ve!!, ' ., . · ve 't.Jer, 'v C 1. 8 and the only species known. pl. 1.(1) From the aroma ' FAMILY VIII. T JENIOIDES. This family is closely connected wit? the ~comberoi~es, and • • timately alhed with Gempilus and its first genus IS even m d fl d • fi h h' ch compose it are elongate , attene Thyrsites; the s es w 1 n the sides and have very small scales. 0 ' ·b fi d the muzzle elongated, the mouth In the first tri ewe n h d d d WI .th strong pointed and trenchant teet , an cleft an arme ' • · I . dvancing beyond the upper one: lt comprises the ower JaW a but two genera, LEPIDOPus; Gouan. . racter consists in the reduction of the ventrals to ~:~:.~!:~~~ :;~i~~;e:::n~:~h:::;~o::;•:;,dl~~:;hi::~t~~~:! ::~ beneath, and terminates in a well fo.rmed caudal; :here ar:r~~g of rays in the branchire; the stomach IS elongat.ed, wit~ ':fu~ar body twenty crecums near the pylorus, and a promment g anl d h. h · 1 ng and s en er. is attached to the natatory bladder, w IC IS o . • 't has Le''~'~ argyreus, Cuv. Frequently five feet m length, IE :r· d · f d from •ng· been described under several names,(2) an IS oun land to the Cape of Good Hope, but is rare every where. . . . alias sa s that his is from the (1) Bose assures us that he caught 1t 1~ Carolma; P Y 1.1oluccas.-They may be different specl~S. . . fi 4· the Trichiuru& (2) It is the Lepidopus of Gouan., Hlst. Plsc., pl. 1, g. ' T . h gladiw IX 1 ix f 2· the rtC • ' caudatut, Eupbrasen, New Stockh. Mem., d , 1 P. .· th'e T. nc: h ensi;~to. rmt· 8 of Vau· Holten, Soc. Hist. Nat. Copenh. V, P· 23, an . p . n; ~of :Montagu, Wer· delli or Vandellius lusitanicus of Shaw; the Ziphotheca tetraden 1 .. £ 1· the ner., Soc. I, P· 81, pl. ii; the Sarcina argyrea, Rafin., Nuov. Caratt., p . vu, . ' LepiiWpe Peron, 'Risso; and the Lepidope argenU of Nardo. ACANTHOPTERYGII. 161 TRICHIURUs, Lin.-LEPTURus, Artedi.-GYMNOGASTER, Gronov. The same form of body, muzzle, and jaws, as in Lepidopus; similar pointed and trenchant teeth, and a dorsal extending along· the back, but the ventrals and caudal are wanting, and the tail is drawn out into a long, slender, and compressed filament. In lieu of the anal there is merely a suite of small and hardly perceptible spines on the under edge of the tail; the branchire have but seven rays. They resemble beautiful silver ribands; their stomach is elongated and thick; their intestines straight; their creca numerous, and their natatory bladder long and simple. Trich. lepturus, Lin.; Brown, Jam., pl. xlv, f. 4,(1) is found in the Atlantic, both on the coast of America and that of Africa. Two other species are known from the Indian Ocean, one of which Trich. haumela, Schn.; Clupea haumela, Forsk., and Gmel.; Savala, Russel, I, 41, is very similar to the lepturus, being only somewhat shorter. The other, Trich. savala, Cuv., is still less elongated, and has a smaller eye.(2) I A second tribe comprehends genera in which the mouth is small, and but slightly cleft. GYMNETRUS, HI. The body elongated and flat, as in all the preceding divisions, and totally deprived of the anal fin; but there is a long dorsal whose lengthened anterior rays form a sort of panache, but they are easily broken; the ventrals, when not worn or broken, are very long, and the caudal, composed of very few rays, rises vertically from the extremity of the tail, which ends in a small hook. There are six rays in the branchire: the mouth is slightly cleft, very protractile, and furnished with but few and small teeth; some small spines on the lateral line, which are more salient towards the tail. These fishes are extremely soft, and their rays very fragile; they have been frequently and incorrectly figured from mutilated specimens;(s) their bones, the vertebrre in (1) It is the Ubirre of Laet., Ind. Occid. 573, which, through a mistake, pointed out by himself, he has placed in Marcgr.,p. 161, as belonging to the description of the Mucu, which is a Mura:na; this mistalte has produced such confusion, that Bloch and others were led to believe that the Trichiurus is a fresh-water fish. (~) A transposition in th~ text of Nieuhof has caused electric properties to be attributed to the Trichiuri of India, which they most assuredly do not possess. (3) The Falx venetorum of Belon, of which Gouan has made his genus TuVoL. II.-V \ |