ACANTHOPTERYGII. 169 



Sp. capensiSf Cuv. A diminutive fresh water fish from the 

 Cape of Good Hope; the only species known. The 



Ophicephalus, B1. 



Resembles all the preceding genera in most of its characters, and 

 particularly in the cellular conformation of the pharyngeals, which 

 are adapted to retain water. These fishes also creep to a consi- 

 derable distance from their liquid abodes, but what particularly dis- 

 tinguishes, and even separates, them, from all other Acanthopte- 

 rygii, is the absence of spines in the fins, the first ray of their 

 ventrals at most excepted, and even that, though simple, is not 

 sharp and stiff. Their body is elongated and almost cylindri- 

 cal; their muzzle short and obtuse; their head depressed and fur- 

 nished above with scales, or rather polygonal plates, as in Anabas,. 

 &c. There are five rays in their branchiae; the dorsal occupies 

 nearly their whole length, the anal also is very long, the caudal 

 rounded, the pectorals and ventrals moderate, and the lateral line 

 uninterrupted. Their stomach is shaped like an obtuse sac; two 

 tolerably long csecums adhere to the pylorus. The abdominal cavity 

 extends above the anal, close to the end of the tail. The jugglers of 

 India exhibit this fish out of water, and even the children amuse 

 themselves by forcing it to crawl upon the ground. In the markets 

 of China the larger species are cut up alive for distribution. (1) They 

 may be divided by the number of their dorsal rays. 



Some have but thirty odd of these rays.(2) 



Others forty odd. (3) 



Some again have more than fifty. (4) 



FAMILY XI. 



MUGILOIDES. 



Our eleventh family of the Acanthopterygii is composed of 

 the genus 



(1) This Is most incontestably the genus alluded to by Theophrastus. 



(2) Ophicephalus pundatus, BL, or Oph. lata, Buchan; 0. marginatus, Cuv., 

 or 0. gachua, Buchan. ? pi. xxi, f. 21, or Cor. motta, Russel, II, pi. 164; 0, auran- 

 ticus, Buch. 



(3) Ophicephalus striatus, Bl. 359, or Muttah, Russel, pi. 162, or 0. chena, Buch. ? 

 0. sola. Id. ; 0. sowara, Russ. 163. 



(4) Ophicephalus maruUus, Buch., which is the Bosirichoide ceille, Lacep. IJj 

 xiv, 3; Oph. barca, Buch. xxxv, 20, to which the Sostriche tachete, Lacep. Ill, p. 



Vol. II.W 



