CLASS PISCES. 537 



coloured, spotted with brown. Ophidium blacodes, 

 Schn. 484 '. 



FlERASFER, 



Want barbels, and their dorsal is so thin that it only 

 seems a simple fold of the skin. Their natatory 

 bladder is supported only by two osselets; that of the 

 middle is wanting. 



The Mediterranean has a species with small and 

 close teeth, Oph. imberbe' 1 , L. 



The Mediterranean also possesses another species, 

 which has two hooked teeth in each jaw, Oph. den- 

 tatum, Cuv. These are both of them very small fishes. 



Ammodytes, L.^^ffi^Jf- / *K*>t*S<& *** ^ 



Have the body elongated like the preceding, and are 

 provided with one fin with articulated rays, but simple 

 on a great portion of the back, with another behind 

 the anus, and a third, forked at the end of the tail. 

 But these three fins are separated by free spaces. 



1 Add Oph. barbatum, Mitch, i. f. 2. which again appears to be a 

 particular species. 



2 It is at once the Gymnotus acus, Gm. ; and the Noiopiere fon- 

 tanes, Risso, 1st. ed. pi. iv. f. 11. 



As for the Ophidium imberbe of the ichthyologists of the north, 

 such as Schonefeldt, Montag., Soc. Werner. I. pi. ii. f. 2. and the 

 Ophidium viride, Fab., Faun., Groenl. 148, I am not acquainted 

 with them, but I believe that they approximate to the eels. 



Finally, the Ophidium occllatum, Tilesius, Mem. de Petersburg, 

 III. pi. clxxx. iii. 27. seems to me to approximate to the 

 Gunnelli. 



