440 ORDER MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 



But one species is known : from Cayenne. 



Odontognathe aiguillonne, Lacep. II. vii. 2 ; has 

 pretty nearly the form of a small sardine, but still 

 more compressed. 



PRISTIG ASTER, CuV., 



Have the head and teeth like the ordinary herrings ; 

 four rays to the gills, and they also appear to want 

 ventral fins ; their belly is very much compressed, and 

 forms a trenchant and dentated arch. There are 

 some of them in both oceans l . 



Notopterus, Lacep. 



For a long time were placed among the gymnoti, but 

 they approximate more to the herrings. There are 

 scales on the cheeks and opercula; their suborbitals, 

 the lower part of their preopercula, and their inter- 

 opercula, two crests of the lower jaw, and the keel of 

 the belly, are dentated; their palatines, and both jaws, 

 are armed with fine teeth, and the upper is in a great 

 measure formed by the maxillary ; their tongue is 

 furnished with strong hooked teeth. They have but 

 a single ray, but a strong and osseous one to the 

 membrane of the gills ; two ventral s, almost imper- 

 ceptible, are followed by a very long anal, which 

 occupies three-fourths of the length of the body, and 

 is united, as in Gymnotus, to the caudal fin, and on 



1 Pr. tardoore, C, Russel, 193. Pr. cayanus, Cuv., a new 

 species. 



