4J2 



MUIUSN1D.E. 



APODAL 



MALACOPTERYC1L AW1L<ENW.E. 



THE BEARDLESS OPHIDIUM. 



Oi>hidium imberbe, LINN/EUS. 



,, ,, Beardless Ophidium, PENN. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 208, pi. 29. 



,, ,, ,, ,, MONTAGU, Wern. Mem. vol. i. p. 95, 



pi. 4, f. 2. 



FLEM. Brit. An. p. 201, sp. 112. 

 ,, ,, ,, ,, JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 481. 



OPHIDIUM. Generic Characters. Head smooth; body elongated, com- 

 pressed ; teeth in both jaws, the palate, and pharynx : gill-aperture rather large ; 

 dorsal, anal, and caudal fin united. 



THE BEARDLESS OPMIDIUM was first added to the cata- 

 logue of British Fishes by Pennant, to whom it was commu- 

 nicated by the Duchess of Portland : the specimen was found 

 near Weymouth. Pennant gave a figure of his fish in the 

 Appendix to the fourth volume of the British Zoology, edi- 

 tion of 1777, but no description. Colonel Montagu after- 

 wards obtained a specimen on the south coast of Devon, which 

 is figured and described in the first volume of the Wernerian 

 Memoirs, as quoted. The editor of the edition of Pennant's 

 British Zoology, published in 1812, left out the figure of the 

 Beardless Ophidium, given in the previous edition, but 

 copied the figure and description of Colonel Montagu. 



