266 ORDER ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



those of a scarus are, however, flat and not gibbons, 

 and are covered by the lips ; the pharyngeal teeth are 

 like paving-stones, as in labrus \ 



The fifteenth and last family of the Acanthopterygii, 

 or that of 



FlSTULARID^E. 



Is characterized by a long tube in the fore part of the 

 cranium, formed by the prolongation of the ethmoid, 

 vomer, preopercula, interopercula, pterygoideals, and 

 tympanals, and at the extremity of which is the 

 mouth, composed, as usual, of the intermaxillaries, 

 maxillaries, and the palatine and mandibulary bones. 

 Their intestine has neither great inequalities nor many 

 folds, and their ribs are short, or wanting. 



Some of them, the Fistularice, have a cylindrical 

 body ; in others, the Centrisci, it is oval and com- 

 pressed. 



Fistularia, Lin. 



The name of these fishes, in particular, is derived 

 from the tube common to the whole family. The 

 jaws are at its extremity, slightly cleft in nearly a 

 horizontal direction. This head, thus elongated, con- 

 stitutes the third or fourth of the total length of the 

 body, which is itself long and thin. There are six or 

 seven rays in the branchiae, and some bony append- 

 ages extend, behind the head, upon the anterior part 

 of the body, which they strengthen more or less. 



1 Scarus pullus, Forst., JB1. Schii. 288. 



