172 PISCES. 



branches of the lower jaw, which are raised vertically and provided 

 with a range of transparent pointed teeth, forming a kind of saw, 

 are enclosed, when the mouth is shut, by those of the upper one. 

 TJiere is also a small series of pointed teeth in each palatine, aud 

 two in the vomer. Their stomach is fleshy and doubled, their cae- 

 cums numerous, and their intestine long. The oesophagus is fur- 

 nished internally with hard and pointed papillse. 



Tetrag. Cuvieri, Risso; Courpata or Corbeau, of the Mediter- 

 ranean coast, is the only species known, and is never taken ex- 

 cept in very deep water. It is a foot long, and black; the scales 

 hard, deeply striate and indented. The flesh is said to be poi- 

 sonous.(l) 



I also place a genus between the Mugiloides and the Go- 

 bioidesj which does not completely harmonize with any other. 

 I mean the 



AtherinAj Lin. 



The body elongated; two dorsals widely separated; the ventrals fur- 

 ther back than the pectorals; the mouth highly protractile and fur- 

 nished with very minute teeth; abroad silvery band along each flank 

 on all the known species. There are six rays in the branchiae; the 

 stomach has no cul-de-sac, and their duodenum no caecal appendages. 

 The transverse processes of the last abdominal vertebrae are bent, 

 and thus form a little conical bag or cornet, which receives the point 

 of the natatory bladder. These little fishes are highly esteemed for 

 the delicacy of their flesh. The young ones remain for a long time in 

 crowded troops, and are consumed on the coast of the Mediterranean 

 under the name of Nonnat^ the Jlphyes of the ancients. Several 

 species inhabit European seas, hitherto confounded with the Mh. 

 hepsetus, L. 



Ath. hepsetics^ Cuv. ;(2) Saudet ofLanguedoc, or Cabassous of 



Provence; Rondel., 216; Duham., sect. VI, pi. iv, f. 3. The 



head somewhat pointed; nine spinous rays in the first dorsal; 



eleven soft ones in the second, and twelve in the anal; fifty-five 



vertebrae in all. 



Mth. ^oyer, Risso; Joel or Cabassouda, Rondel., 217. The 



(1) There is no good figure of it: Mugil niger. Rondel. 423; Corvus niloticus, 

 Aldrov., Pise, 610; Risso, Ed. 1, pi. x, f. 37- 



(2) This is probably the special type of the hepsetus of Linna;us. It is neces- 

 sary to observe that the figure called Mherina hepsetus, Bl., pi. cccxciii, f. 3, and 

 Syst., pi. xxix, f. 2, is purely ideal. 



