CLASS PISCES. 447 



Amia, L. 

 Have many relations with the erythrini, in their 

 jaws, their teeth, their head covered with osseous and 

 hard pieces, their large scales, and the flat rays of 

 their gills, but these rays are twelve in number. 

 Between the branches of their lower jaw is a sort of 

 osseous buckler, a commencement of which was al- 

 ready to be observed in megalops and elops ; behind 

 their conical teeth are others like small paving stones, 

 and their dorsal, which commences between the pec- 

 torals and ventrals, extends nearly to the caudal. The 

 anal, on the contrary, is short : the nostrils have each 

 a small tubular appendage ; the stomach is ample and 

 fleshy, the intestine broad and stout, without cceca, 

 and what is well worthy of note, the natatory bladder 

 is cellular, like the lung of a reptile. 



But one species is known, from the rivers of Caro- 

 lina, where it feeds on crabs {Amia calva, L. Bl. 

 Schn. 80.). It is seldom eaten ! . 



Sudis 2 , Cuv., 



Are also fresh- water fishes, which have all the cha- 

 racters of erythrinus, except that their dorsal and 



that the Synodus synodus, Schn., which is only known from a figure 

 of Gronovius, Zooph. et Mus. vii. 2., is but a Salmo saurus which 

 had lost the second dorsal. The Esox synodus, Linn., as far as may 

 be judged from its short description, is not the same. 



1 N.B. The Amia immaculata, Schn. 451., or Macabi, Parra, 

 xxxv. 1. 3. 5. is no other than the Butirin banane. 



3 Sudis, a name employed by Pliny as synonymous with sphy- 

 rcena. 



