CLASS PISCES. 501 



interval between the pectorals and ventrals is not 

 divided into a double disk, but forms only a single 

 large disk, cleft on both sides, and prolonged by mem- 

 branes. Their dorsal and anal are short, and dis- 

 tinct from the caudal; their gills are much more 

 cleft K 



Cyclopterus, L., 



Have a very marked character in their ventrals, whose 

 rays suspended all round the pelvis, and united by a 

 single membrane, form an oval and concave disk, 

 which the fish employs as a sucker to fix itself to the 

 rocks. For the rest, their mouth is broad, furnished 

 at the two jaws and at the pharyngeals with small 

 pointed teeth ; their opercula are small ; their gills 

 closed towards the bottom, and furnished with six 

 rays ; their pectorals very ample, and uniting almost 

 under the throat, as it were to embrace the disk of 

 the ventrals. Their skeleton does not harden much, 

 and their skin is viscous and without scales, but sown 

 with small hard grains. They have a stomach to- 

 lerably large, numerous cceca, a long intestine, and a 

 moderate natatory bladder. We divide them into 

 two subgenera. 



Lumpus, 

 Have a first dorsal more or less visible, although very 



1 Lepad. dentex, Schn., Pall. Spic. vii. 1., the same as the Cy- 

 clopterus nudus, Lin. Mus. ad. Fr. xxvii. 1., and as the Gobiesoce 

 testar, Lac. II. xix. 1. ; Cyclopterus bimaculatus, Penn. Brit. Zool. 

 pi. xxii. f. 1. ; Cyclopterus Uttoreus, Schn. 199. 



