MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 211 



each flank, as in the Hemiramphi, &c.(l) The head is flattened 

 above and on the sidesj the dorsal placed above the anal; the eyes 

 large, the intermaxillaries without pedicles and constituting the 

 whole edge of the upper jaw; their two jaws are furnished with 

 small pointed teeth, and their pharyngeals with teeth en pave. 

 They have ten branchial raysj their natatory bladder is very large, 

 their intestine straight and without cieca; the superior lobe of the 

 caudal is the shortest. 



They do not fly far: rising in the air to avoid their voracious ene- 

 mies, they soon fall into the sea, their wings merely acting as para- 

 chutes. Birds pursue them through the air and Fishes through the 

 water. They are found in all the seas of hot and temperate cli- 

 mates. 



E. exilens, Bl., 397. Common in the Mediterranean, and 



easily recognized by the length of its ventrals, placed posterior 



to the middle of the body; the fins of the young are marked 



with black bands. (2) 

 E. volitans, Bl., 398. Common in the Atlantic Ocean, and 



has small ventrals placed anterior to the middle of the body.(3) 

 The American seas produce species with cirri, which are some- 

 times simple,(4) sometimes double, and even ramous.(5) 



Next to the family of the Esoces we place a genus of fishes, 

 which, though differing but little from the former, has longer 

 intestines and two caeca. It will most probably give rise to a 

 particular family. It is the 



(1) We must not, like Bloch, confound this carina with the lateral line, which, 

 thoug-h frequently but slighdy marked, is in its ordinary place. 



(2) Such was the little Carolina specimen described by Linnaeus, and, as I be- 

 lieve, iheExocetusfasciatiis,Lesueui',Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad., 11, pi. iv, f. 2; the se- 

 cond Pirabebe of Pison, 61, is the volitans. 



(3) I see by the drawing's of Commerson and by that of White, Bot. Bay, App., 

 p. 266, as well as by the fishes lately received from our travellers, that both these 

 forms are found in the Pacific Ocean. 



N.B. The exiliens and the mesogaster, Bl., 399, closely resemble each other, and 

 it is not an easy matter to disting'uish ihem by the descriptions and fig-ures of tra- 

 vellers. The evolatis of Lin. seems to have been a volitans whose scales had 

 fallen. 



(4) Exocetus comatus, Mitch., op. cit. I, pi. v, f. 1, probably the same as the 

 Ex. uppendiculatiis, W. Wood, Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil., IV, xvii, 2. 



(5) Exocetus furcatus, Mitch., op. cit. I, f. 2, which I suspect is the same as 

 Ex. Nuttalii, Lesueur, Ac. Nat. Sc. Phil., II, iv, 1. 



