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Show 218 PISCES. . ough and continues to the dorsal as in Synodontis, and their 1s r . d shoulder bone forms a point behm • Some of them merely have the band of small and crowded teeth in the upper jaw.( 1) . I thers the snout is pointed and the teeth are e1ther wanting no , . . · f · or are hardly visible; the maxillary curl are sometlmes urmshed with lateral setre.(2) HETEROBRANOHus, Geoff. The head provided with a helmet that is rough, flat, and broader than that of any other Silurus, a circumstance occasioned by two lateral pieces furnished by the frontals and parietals which cover the orbits and temples. The operculum is still smaller in proportion than in the preceding fishes, and what chiefly distinguishes them from all others is the peculiarity observed by M. Geoffroi, that besides the ordinary branchice, they have an apparatus ramify. ing like a tree, adhering to the superior branch ~f the third and fourth branchial arch, and which appears to constitute a sort of su· pernumerary gills. Their viscera resemble those of other Siluri, and their branchial membrane has from eight or nine to thirteen or fourteen rays. The spine of their pectoral is strong and dentated, but there is none such in the dorsal; their body is naked and elan· gated, as well as their dorsal and anal. There is no spine in the dorsal. The caudal is distinct. All the species known have eight cirri and inhabit the Nile, the Senegal, and some rivers in Asia. Their flesh is indifl'erent or bad. Some of them, the MAOROl'TER.ON.OTES, Lacep., or the CLARIAS1 Gronov.., have but a ~:.ingle radiated dorsal. One of these, the Sharmuth, or Black-Fish, Silurus anguilla· ris, Hasselq. and L., is common in Egypt and in Syria, cousti· tuting in the latter a considerable article of food.(3) (1) Silurus costatus, L., Dl., 376, and Gronov., V, 1, 2, which is also the Catapltractus americanus, Catesb., Suppl., IX, usually quoted as Sil. cataphractus;Sil. carinatus, La.cep., which appears to me the same as Gr01~ov., III, 4 and 5, gen· erally cited also as the S. cataphractus, and as the Klip-bagre, Marcgr., 174, thus reducing the S. cataphractusto nothin·g.-Doras granulosus, Valenc.,App. Humb., Zool., Obs., II, 133. (2) Doras niger, Valenc., loc. cit., or Oorydoras edentulus, Spix, V;-Dor· (11;' yrltynchus, Val., lb. (3) Add Macropt. magur, Buchan. XXVI, the same as the Silurua called anguil· laris by Patr. Uussel, 168;-Sil. batrachus, Bl., 370, 1, which may be the same~ the Macropteronote brun, Lac., V, ii, 2;-the hezacircine has only six cirri, but tt rests merely on Chinese drawings. MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 219 Others have a radiated dorsal and a second one that is adipose. ( 1) PLoTosus, Lacep. ' · A second radiated dorsal, which, as well as the anal, is very Jon f . . h g, both o them umtmg at t e caudal to form a point as in the Eel; lips fleshy and pendent; the mouth armed in front with conical teeth, behind which are globular ones, those of the upper jaw belonging to the vomer; the body and head enveloped by a thick naked skin; nine or ten rays in the branchice. The species known are from the East Indies. They have eight cirri, and behind the anus and the fleshy and conical tubercle common to all the Siluri, is an~ther appendage which is fleshy and ramified, whose functions must be very singular. Some of them have large and dentated dorsal and pectoral spines.(2) In others they are almost hidden unde1· the skin.(3) CALLIOHTHYs, Lin.-CATAPHRAOTus, Lacep.( 4) Sides of the body almost entirely mailed in four ranges of scaly plates, and a compartment of these plates on the head; but the end o.f the sno~t is naked, as well as the inferior surface of the body; a smgle ray m the anterior edge of the second dorsal; the pectoral spine strong, but the dorsal feeble or short. The mouth is but slightly cleft, and the teeth are almost insensible; four cirri; eyes small and on the sides of the head. These fishes can crawl about out of water for some time like the Eel. The pecto1·al spine of some is simply rough;( s) in others it is dentated as in most of the Siluri.(6) The MALAPTERURus, Lacep. Is distinguished from Silurus, properly so called, by the absence of the radiated fin on the back, there being nothing but a small adipose one on the tail, and by the total deficiency of a spine in the pectorals, whose rays are entirely soft. The head as well as the rl) The Hale (Heterobranchus bidorsalis), Geoff., Eg., Poiss. du Nil., pl. xvi, f. 2. (2) Platystacus anguillaris, Bl., 373, 1; Renard, I, fol. 3, f. 19. (3) Plotosus cmsius, Buchan., XV, 44. . (4) CALLICHTIIYs, L., first editions. N.D. Block, in his genus CATAPHRACTus, mcludes Doras and Callichthys. (5) Silurus callicltthys~ Bl., 377, 1. (6) A new species. \ |