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Show 210 ' PISCES. last rays of the dorsal and anal are detached, forming spurious fins as in the Mackerel. . One of them is taken in the Mediterranean, the Scombr~aoce ~ · Lac V vi 3· Esox saurus, BI., Schn., pl. 78, 2; campc:r~en, · ' ' ' Sa'iris nians, Rafin., Nuov., Gen., IX, 1.(1) HEMIRAMPHUS, Cuv. The edge of the upper jaw, which as well as .that of t?e lo.wer one is furnished with small teeth, formed by the mtermax1llar1es; but the upper jaw is very short, and the syrn~hysis of the lower one is extended into a long point or semi-beak w1thout teeth; the por~, fins, and viscera of a Belone; scales large and round, and a carmated range of them along the belly. . . Several species are found in the seas of hot climates m both hemispheres; their flesh, although oily, is agreeable to the pa· late.(2) ExocETus, Lin.(3) These well known, or Flying-Fishes, as they are called, are instantly distinguished among the Abdominales by the excessive. size of.their Pectorals which are sufficiently large to support them m the a1r for a few mom' ents. Their head and body are scaly, and a long1. tu d'm a l range of carinated scales forms a salient line on the lower part of (1) Add, Scomberuox equirostt·is, Lesueur, Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad., I, 13Z;-Sc. scutellatus, Id. lb. (2) Species from India: Hem.longirostris, Cuv., or lr:uddera, C, Uuss., 178;-~ brevirostris, or /,uddera, ll, Russ., 177, Willughb., App. pl. vii, f. 4;-H. margt· natus, Cuv., Lacep., V, vii, 2;-H. Commersonii, Cuv., Lacep., V, vii, 3, or the Demi-bec de Baggewaal, Ren., part II, pl. v, No. 21. American species, If. brasiliensis, Cuv., or Esox brasiliensis, Bl., 391 ;-H. htp~t· tus, or Esox ltepsefus, Bl., Schn., and others to be described in our Ilist. desPms· sons. See also the article of M. Lesueur, Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad., I, 134, et seq. N.H. :M. de Luc. unites the Esox hespet.us, Lin., to the Es. marginatus; but the former is a compound of two fishes-one, the Piquitinga of Marcgr., 159, (the mrenidia of Brown, Jam., XLV, 3,) is an Anchovy; the other, .llmren. Ac. I, P· 321, appears to me to be indeterminable, but it cannot be a Hemiramphus. (3) E~oo"wro~, sleeping out, the Greek name of a fish, which, according to the ancients, came on shore to rest. It was most probably either a Goby Ol' a Blenny, as imagined by Rondelet and others. It is difficult to conjecture what could h~ve induced Artedi to associate the fishes here in question with these Blennies: Lm· nreus separated them, but without altering the name of exocetus, which does not belong to them. MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMIN ALES. 211 each flank, as in the Hemiramphi, &c.( 1) .The head is flattened above and on the sides; the dorsal placed above the anal; the eyes large, the intermaxillaries without pedicles and constituting the whole edge of the upper jaw; their two jaws are furnished with small pointed teeth, and their pharyngeals with teeth en pave. They !;ave ten branchial rays; their natatory bladder is very large, their intestine straight and without creca; the superior lobe of the caudal is the shortest. They do not fly far: rising in the air to avoid their voracious enemies, they soon fall into the sea, their wings merely acting as parachutes. Birds pursue them through the air and Fishes through the water. They ue found in all the seas of hot and temperate climates. E. exilens, BI., 397. Common in the Mediterranean, and easily recognized by the length of its ventrals, placed posterior to the middle of the body; the fins of the young are marked with black bands.(2) E. volitans, Bl., 398. Common in the Atlantic Ocean, and has small ventrals placed anterior to the middle of the body.(3) The American seas produce species with cirri, which are sometimes simple,( 4) sometimes double, and even ramous.(s) Next to the family of the Esoces we place a genus of fishes, which, though differing but little from the former, has longer intestines and two creca. It will most probably give rise to a particular family. It is the (1) We must not, like Bloch, confound this carina with the lateral line, which, though frequently but slightly marked, is in its ordinary place. . (2) Such was the little Carolina specimen described by Linnreus, and, as I believe, t~eExocetusfasciatus, Lesueur, Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad., II, pl. iv, f. 2; thesecond Ptrahebe of Pison, 61, is the voli.tans. (3) I see by the drawings of Commerson and by that of White, Bot. Bay, App., P· 266, as well as by the fishes lately received from our travellers, that both these forms are found in the Pacific Ocean. . ~.B. The exiliens and the muogaster, Bl., 399, closely reaemble each other, and , 1t 18 not an easy matter to distinguish them by the descriptions and figures of tra-fal vellers. The ·evolans of Lin. seems to have been a volitans whose scales had len. E (4) Exoc~tu8 romatus, Mitch., op. cit. I, pl. v, f. 1, probably the same as the x. appendtculatus, W. Wood, Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil., IV, xvii, 2. E (Sk Exocetusfurcatua, Mitch., op. cit. I, f. 2, which I suspect is the same as x. uttalii, Lesueur, Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil., II, iv, 1. \ |