228 ORDER ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



Duham. sect. vi. pi. iv. f. 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The muzzle 

 a little shorter than that of the sauclet ; eight spines 

 in the first dorsal, twelve soft rays in the second, 

 fifteen or sixteen in the anal, and fifty vertebrae. The 

 name of this fish is derived from the silvery band on 

 the flanks, which has been compared to a stole \ 



The twelfth family of the acanthopterygii, or 

 that of 



Gobioides, 



Is known by the slender and flexible dorsal spines. 

 All these fishes have about the same kind of intes- 

 tines, that, is, a large, uniform, intestinal canal with- 

 out cceca, and no natatory bladder. 



Blennius, L. 



Have a strongly marked character in the ventral fins, 

 which are placed before the pectorals, and consist of 

 only two rays. The stomach is slender, and has no 

 cul-de-sac ; the intestine large, but without a ccecum, 

 and there is no natatory bladder. The body is elon- 

 gated and compressed, and has but a single dorsal, 

 almost entirely composed of simple but flexible rays. 



1 The atherinae foreign to Europe are numerous. Alher. lacunosa, 

 Forst., Bl. Schn. 112., probably the hepsetus, Forsk. 09. A. en- 

 drachtensis, Quoy. and Gaym., Freycin. Zool. p. 334. A. Jack- 

 soniana. id. 333. A. brasUiensis, id. 332. A. neso-gal'/ca, Cuv., 

 Lacep. v. pi. xi. f. 1., which is not the same as the A. pinguis of 

 the text. A. mcenidia of Lin., which is not, as he supposes, the 

 mcenidia of Brown, Jam. pi. xlv. f. 3., but is the A. notala, Mitch. 

 i. pi. iv. f. G. ; and several others to be described in our Ichthyology. 



