class pisces. 449 



the ethmoid ; the lower jaw equals it in length, and 

 both jaws, bristling over their whole interior surface 

 with rasp-like teeth, have along their edge a row of 

 long and pointed teeth. Their gills are united under 

 the throat by a common membrane, which has three 

 rays on each side. They are invested with scales of 

 a stony hardness : the dorsal and anal are opposite 

 one another, and both very far back. The two ex- 

 treme rays of the tail, and the first of all the other 

 fins, are furnished with scales which cause them to 

 appear dentated. Their stomach is continued as 

 far as a slender intestine, twice folded, having many 

 short cceca to the pylorus : their natatory bladder is 

 cellular, as in amia, and occupies the length of the 

 abdomen. Thev are found in the rivers and lakes of 

 the warm parts of America ! . 



These fishes grow large, and are good for eating 2 . 



Polypterus, Geoffr. 



Have the edges of the upper jaw immoveable, and 

 formed in the middle by the intermaxillaries, and on 



1 I do not believe that the fish of the East Indies, Renard. viii. 

 f. 56. Valent. iii. 459. is, as Bloch will have it, the Esox osseus ; it 

 is rather a species of belone. 



2 Esox osseus, Linn., Bl. 390. ; the Lepisoslee spatule, Lacep. V. 

 vi. 2., and the other species or varieties described by M. Rafinesque, 

 Poiss. de l'Ohio, p. 72, &c. 



N.B. Under the name of Esox viridis, Linnaeus appears to have 

 united a description of the Or2)hie,(Es. belone) sent by Garden with 

 the fig. of the Caiman (Es. osseus) given by Catesby IT. xxx. 

 VOL. X. G g 



