ACANTHOPTERYGII. 285 



psenae, which are almost all remarkable for their ugliness, 

 there exists one more deformed, and we may say more mon- 

 strous than all the rest : this is the genus Pelor, of which 

 Pallas has described a species under the name of Scorpcena 

 didactyla. Its head crushed in front, its projecting and ap- 

 proximating eyes, the high and almost isolated spines of its 

 dorsal, cause it to be distinguished at the first aspect. To 

 these unusual forms are united certain precise characters; 

 the absence of the scales in the bod}-, that of teeth to the 

 palatines, and two free rays under the pectorals. 



The Pelor jilameniosum seems a new species brought from 

 the Isle of France ; without the assistance of a figure it would 

 be impossible to communicate an idea of the inconceivable 

 oddity of the forms with which nature has thought proper to 

 mark this extraordinary fish. It lives upon Crustacea. The 

 debris of Squillae have been found in its stomach. 



Bloch, in his Systema, has detached the genus synanceia 

 from that of scorpaenae, and indeed it was impossible to suffer 

 them to remain confounded. The synanceia have no spines 

 to the head, and the head is not more compressed than in 

 many of the cotti. The vomer and palate are deficient of 

 teeth, and the pectorals, though pretty nearly of the same 

 form as those of the scorpaenae, have only branched rays. 

 They also far exceed all the scorpaenae in their hideous forms 

 and disgusting skin. The pelora alone can dispute precedence 

 with them in these particulars. All the known species like- 

 wise come from the Oriental Seas. 



As to the species horrida, it is difficult for language to 

 convey an idea of so anomalous a being, and even to conceive 

 it by means of drawing, it would be necessary to represent it 

 in all its faces. On the whole, however, what occasions it to 

 differ so much in appearance from the neighbouring species, 

 is that the interval of the eyes is projecting instead of being 

 hollow, and that the great suborbital diverges widely from the 



