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Show 264 PISCES. LEPTOCEPHALUS, Penn. The branchial aperture before the pectorals; body compressed like a riband; head extremely small, with a short and somewhat pointed snout; pectorals almost imperceptible, or totally wanting; the dorsal and anal hardly visible, and uniting at the point of the tail. The intestines occupy but an extremely narrow line along the inferior edge. L. morisii, Gm.; Lacep. II, iii, 2, inhabits the coast of France and England. Several other species, however, are found in the seas of hot climates, all of them as thin as paper and transparent as glass, so that even the skeleton is not visible. The profound study of their organization is one of the most interesting to which travellers can devote themselves. 0PHIDIUM, Lin. The anus, as in Aguilla properly so called, far behind; the dorsal and anal fins united with that of the tail, and terminating the body in a point; the body so elongated and compressed that it has been compared to a sword, and invested like that of an Eel with small scales planted in the thickness of the skin. The Ophidii, however, differ from Eels in their well cleft branchia:, which are furnished with a very apparent operculum and a membrane with short rays. Their dorsal rays are articulated, but not branched. 0PHIDIUM, Cuv. Two pairs of small cirri under the throat, adhering to the point of the hyoid bone. Some of them are found in the Mediterranean. 0. barbatum, BI., 59. Flesh-coloured; dorsal and anal bor· dered with black; the anterior cirri shortest; greatest length from eight to ten inches. 0. Vassalli, Risso. Brown; no edging on the fins; cirri equal. The stomach of these fishes is a thin oblong sac; their intes· tines, which have several flexures, are without cceca, their oval, large and very thick natatory bladder is supported by three pe· culiar bones suspended under the first vertebra:, the middle one one of which is moved by its proper muscles. Their flesh is good. 0. brevibarbe, Cuv. A third species from Brazil; brown, with shorter cirri. MALACOPTERYGII APODES. 265 0. blacodes, Schn., 484.(1) From the South SeasJ a very large rose-colout·ed species, spotted with brown. FrERASFER, Cuv. No cil'l'i, and the dorsal so thin that it seems to be a mere fold of the skin; the natatory bladder supported by two bones only the middle one being wanting. ' One species is found in the Mediterranean,-Ophidium imberbe, L.,(2) \those teeth are small and crowded, and another,Oph. dentatum, Cuv., which has two hooked teeth in each jaw. They are very small fishes. AMMODYTEs, Lin. An elongated body like that of the preceding fishes, provided with a fin, having articulated but simple rays, occupying a great part of the back, with a second behind the anus, and with a third, whichi. s forked, at the end of the tail; these three fins, however, are separated by free spaces. The snout is acute; the uppct· jaw susceptible of extension, and the lower one, when at rest, longer than the other. The stomach of these fishes is fleshy and pointed; they have neither creca nor natatory bladder, and they live in the sand, whence they are taken after the tide has ebbed. Two species are found on the coast of France which were long confounded under the common name of .llmmodytes tobianus, L., but which have lately been distinguished.(3) They are: .11. tobianus, Bl., 75, 2; Ray., I; Synop., III, f. 12. The lower jaw most pointed; the maxillaries longest; pedicles of the intermaxillaries very short; the dorsal commencing opposite to the end of the pectorals; and .11. lancea, Cuv. Penn. Brit. Zool. pl. xxv, f. 66. The max- (1~ Add the Opl£idium barbatum, Mitch., I, f. 2, which appears to be a distinct spwes. . (2) It is the Gymnotus acus, Gm., and the Notoptere fontanes, Risso, Ed. I, pl. IV1 f. 11. With the Opltidium imbe:rbe of the northern Icthyologists, such as Schonefeldt, .Montag., Werner. Soc. I, pl. ii, f. 2, and the Ophidium viride, Fah., Faun. Groen!. 148, I am unacquainted; I believe them, however, to be allieJ to the Eels. The Opltidium ocellatum, Tiles., Mem. Ac. Petersb., III, pl. 180, iii, 27, seems to me to approach the Gunnelli. . (~)I~ is to M. Lcsauvage, a learned physician of Normandy, that we owe this distmct10n, but he has transposed the name of tobianus. See the Bullet. des Sc. s.ept. 1824, p. 141. There remains to be ascertained whether the .!J.mmorl;ytu Clcerellm, Hati.n., Caratt., pl. ix, f. 4, differs from the tobianus. Vo1.. II.-2 I |
