312 PISCES. 



Fistitlaria, Pipe-mouths, properly so called. These have only one dorsal, consisting, in great part, as well as the 

 anal, of simple rays. Their intermaxillaries and the lower jaw are furnished with small teeth. From between the 

 lobes of the caudal fin there arises a sort of filament, which is sometimes as long as the body. The tube of the 

 muzzle is depressed; the air-bladder is exceedingly small; and the scales on the skin are invisible. They are 

 found in the warm seas of both hemispheres. [Sailors term them Tobacco-pipe Fishes, and they are of no value, 

 except as curiosities.] 



Aulostomus. These have numerous free spines before the dorsal ; and their jaws are toothless : their body is 

 very scaly ; not so slender as in the former subgenus, but enlarged and compressed between the dorsal and the 

 anal, which enlargement is followed by a short and slender tail, ending in a common fin. The tube of the muzzle 

 is shorter, wider, and much more compressed than that of the true Pipe Fishes ; and the air-bladder is larger. 

 There is but a single known species, which is a native of the Indian Ocean. 



Cenlriscus, or Snipe-fish. — These have the tubular muzzle characteristic of the family ; but the body 

 is oval or oblong, not lengthened, compressed laterally, and sharp on the upper part. They have only 

 two or three slender gill-rays ; a spinous first dorsal ; and small ventrals behind the pectorals. Their 

 mouth is very small, and opens obliquely : their intestine has two or three folds, but no cceca : and 

 their air-bladder is of considerable size. As in Fistularia, they admit of division into two subgenera. 



Cenlriscus, properly so called. These have the first dorsal fin backwards ; and the first dorsal spine, which is 

 long and strong, connected, by intermediate pieces, with the bones of the shoulder and the head. They have the 

 body covered with small scales, and some larger denticulated ones over the apparatus connected with the spinous 

 ray of the first dorsal. [This ray is strong in itself, firmly supported, and with rugged teeth on its posterior edge, 

 capable of being moved, and thus forms a very powerful weapon. One species, C. scolopax, the Sea Snipe, 

 Sea Trumpet, or Bellows Fish of the Cornish coast, is common in the Mediterranean, and is occasionally found 

 on the south coast as a straggler. The specimens met with are not large, not exceeding five or six inches in length. 

 The young are of a brilliant silvery lustre; but when mature, the back is red, paler on the sides, and passing into 

 silvery, glossed with gold, on the belly. All the fins are greyish white. The scales are hard and rough, granu- 

 lated on the surface, and beautifully cdiated on the posterior edge. Its flesh is considered good. Its haunts are 

 understood to be muddy bottoms, in moderately deep water ; and its food the minute Crustacea with which such 

 places usually abound.] 



Amphisile, has the back mailed with large scaly pieces, of which the anterior spine of the first dorsal appears to 

 be a continuation. Some have other scaly pieces on the flanks, and the spine in question placed so far behind 

 that it is against the base of the tail ; against which it, as it were, thrusts the second dorsal and the anal; this 

 is C. scutatus. Others are intermediate between this form and that of the ordinary Centriscus, or have the mail 

 plates covering only a part of the back; such is C. velitaris. All the known species are inhabitants of the 

 Indian seas. 



THE SECOND ORDER OF BONY FISHES. 



MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 



The second division of the Ordinary Fishes, [or fishes with bones in the skeleton,] the 

 Malacopterygii, or Jointed-fin Fishes, consists of three orders, the distinguishing character 

 of each of which is the position or absence of the ventral fins. 



The present order comprises fishes which have the ventral fins suspended to the abdomen, 

 behind the pectorals, without being attached to the bones of the shoulder ; they are the most 

 numerous order of the division, and include the greater part of fresh-water fishes. They are 

 divided into five families. 



THE FIRST FAMILY OF THE MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 



CyprinidvE (the Carp Family). 

 These have the mouth shallow, the jaws feeble, very often without teeth, and the margin formed 

 by the outer maxillaries ; but they have the pharynx strongly toothed, which compensates for the feeble 

 armature of the jaws. They have few gill-rays ; their body is scaly ; and they have no adipose 

 dorsal, as we shall find in the Silures and Salmon. The stomach has no cul-de-sac or coecal appen- 

 dages ; and they are the least carnivorous of all fishes. [The genera and subgenera are arranged as 

 follows :] — 



