ACANTHOPTERYGII. 325 



heniochus ; besides which the protuberance of its cranial crest 

 is a character sufficiently marked to constitute a genus. 

 The Baron has, therefore, so separated it, under the name 

 Taueichthys, translating into Greek its Malay name. 



Another species, T. viridis, is added by Cuvier, of which 

 we know nothing beyond some silly superstitions the people 

 of Amboyna entertain with reference to it, which are not 

 worth repeating. 



The Holacanthi are found in both Indies, and are ge- 

 nerally reckoned among the best fish for the table, as well as 

 among the most ornamented. H. ciliari^ however, is not 

 much esteemed as food ; but H. imperator is in great request, 

 and is said to eat like salmon. We are told by Ruysch and 

 Renard, concerning the H. Latnarckii, that the two sexes 

 never abandon each other, and that if one is taken the other 

 follows the fisherman, and even throws itself into the net, or 

 on the shore. This would indeed be a singular habit in the 

 class of fishes, but in all probability it is referrible only to 

 some insulated fact, and has been observed at the period of 

 spawning. 



The holocanthi have a form more or less oval, and the 

 spines of their dorsal fin with but little inequality, are generally 

 thirteen or fourteen in number. 



We insert a figure of a species of this genus, Hoi. arcuatus, 

 Gray, from a specimen in the British Museum. 



America produces others, which have but nine or ten 

 dorsal spines, which increase in size from the first to the 

 tenth, and cause the anterior edge of the fin to ascend more 

 rapidly. Their external teeth have always the points smaller 

 at the sides of their principal point, which is the case with 

 but a small number of the preceding, and their suborbital 

 and preoperculum have the edge entire, and without denticu- 

 lation. In general they have the body higher than the others, 

 and their total appearance is somewhat different. To these 



