acanthopterygii. 113 



Percophis, Cuv. 



The body, on the contrary, is much elongated; some of the teeth 

 are very long and pointed, and the end of the lower jaw projects. 



Percoph. brasilianus, Cuv.; Fere. Fabre, Quoy and Gaym., 

 Voy. Freycin., Zool., liii, 1, 2. The only species known: also 

 from Brazil. 

 One of the most remarkable genera, of the Jugulares is that of 



Uranoscopus, Lin. 



So called because the eyes are placed on the superior surface of 

 the nearly cubical head, and look upwards: the mouth is cleft verti- 

 callyj the lower part of the preoperculum is crenate, and there is a 

 stout spine to each shoulder; but six rays in the branchiae. In the 

 mouth and before the tongue is a long and narrow slip, which can 

 be protruded at the will of the fish, and serves, it is said, to attr-act 

 small ones, while it remains concealed in the mud. A remarkable 

 peculiarity of their anatomy is the enormous size of the gall-bladder, 

 a fact well known to the ancients.(l) 



In some, the first dorsal, small and spinous, is separated from the 

 second which is soft and long. 



Uranos. scaber, L. ; Bl. 173. Grey-brown, with irregular ran- 

 ges of whitish spots. Although one of the most hideous of 

 fishes, it is eaten. From the Mediterranean. 



Very similar species are found in the Indian ocean, and in 

 Brazil.(2) 

 Others have but one dorsal in which the spinous and soft parts 

 are united. They are all foreign to our seas. (3) 



In a third division of the Percoides, the ventrals are in- 

 serted further back than the pectorals : they are the Percoi^ 

 DES Abdominales. The first genus is 



POLYNEMUS, L. 



So named because several of the inferior pectoral rays are free, and 

 form so many filaments;(4) the ventrals are not very far back, and 



(1) Arist. Hist., An., lib. II, xv. 



(2) Add Uranosc. affinis, Ur. marmoratus, Ur. guttatus, Ur. jiUbarbis, Ur. Y 

 greecum; new species described in our third Vol. 



(3) Uranosc. lebeck, Bl., Schn., p. 47; Ur. monopterygius, lb. 49; Ur. lsevis,lh., 

 pi. viii; Ur. inermis, Cuv., et Val., Ill, Ixxi, and Ur. cirrhoms, two new species. 



(4) From yufxa, [a thread). 



Vol. II. P 



