108 ORDER ACANTHOPTERYGH. 



ginated, and the eye enormous. They have their 

 teeth like the pile of velvet. 



Only one species is known proper to the Mediter- 

 ranean ; but excessively rare. (Pomat. telescope, Risso.) 

 Cuv. et Val. ii. 24. 



A second subdivision includes the perco'ides with 

 two dorsal fins, and with long and pointed teeth, 

 mixed with their velvety teeth. 



Ambassis, Commers. 



Have nearly the shape of the apogons ; their preoper- 

 culum has a double indentation toward the base, their 

 operculum terminates in a point, but they are distin- 

 guishable from the apogons, by having the two dorsal 

 fins contiguous, and by a recumbent spine in front of 

 the foremost. 



Possibly they may not altogether belong to this 

 family ; for their intestinal canal has no appendix to 

 the pylorus. 



They are small fresh water fish of India, which 

 abound in the rivers and ponds there ; many of them 

 are transparent \ * 



There is one of them common in a pond in the 

 Isle of Bourbon, which is prepared there like ancho- 

 vies. {Ambassis Commersonii, Cuv. and Val. ii. 25. 2 ) 



It is to this division that belongs 



1 Mr. Hamilton Buchanan inserts many of them in his chanda. 



2 It is the Centropome ambasse, Lac. iv. 273. and his Lutjan gym- 

 nocephale, iv. 216. and iii. pi. xxiii. f. 3. For other species, see 

 Cuv. and Val. ii. 181. and the following. 



