398 ORDER MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 



of their mouth is very small, almost like those mam- 

 mifera named ant-eaters ; the maxillaries form its 

 angles ; some slender teeth, emarginated at the end, 

 furnish the intermaxillaries and the lower jaw, and 

 there is upon the tongue, and under the vomer, a long 

 band of small and crowded teeth. The stomach is 

 like a rounded sac, followed by two coeca, and a long 

 and slender intestine almost always enveloped in much 

 fat. The bladder is long, ample, and simple. 



The mormyri are ranked among the best fishes of 

 the Nile. 



Some have the muzzle cylindrical, and the dorsal 

 long 1 . 



Others have the muzzle cylindrical, and the dorsal 

 short 2 . 



We may believe, with M. Geoffroy, that it is in one 

 or the other of these subdivisions that we should look 

 for the oxyrhincus, so much revered by the ancient 

 Egyptians. 



1 The Morm. d'Hasselquist, Geoff. Poiss. du Nil. pi. vi. f. 2. Mor- 

 myrus caschive, Hasselq. 398, which appears to me different from the 

 preceding in several essential points, as far as may be judged from 

 its description. The Morm. oxyrinque, Geoff, pi. vi. f. 1, which is 

 the centriscus niloticus, Schn. pi. xxx. Mormyrus cannume, Forsk. 

 74, the description of which appears to me not to agree with any of 

 the preceding species. 



The Morm. de Denderah, or anguilloides, L., Geoff, pi. vii. f. 2, 

 erroneously confounded with the caschive of Hasselquist, by Lin- 

 naeus, but which is the Herse, Sonnini, Voy. en Egypte, pi. 

 xxii. f. 1. 



