MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 227 



the branchice, and the intestines differ but slightly from those of the 

 Trout. 



A. sphyrcena, L., Cuv. ; Mem. du Mas., I^, xi. The only spe- 

 cies known; its natatory bladder is extremely thick, and singu- 

 larly loaded with that silvery substance (nacre) which is so 

 remarkable in fish; it is employed for colouring pearls. The 

 stomach is remarkable for its black colour.(l) From the Medi- 

 terranean. 

 Artedi and several of his successors have united all the Salmoni- 

 des, which have not more than four or five rays in the branchicE, in 

 the subgenus Characinus; but there is a sufficient difference iu their 

 figure, and particularly in their teeth, to warrant a still greater sub- 

 division. They all, however, have the numerous caeca of the pre- 

 ceding Salmons, with the bladder of the Cyprinidas, which is divided 

 by a strangulation. The lingual teeth of the Trout are always 

 wanting. We subdivide them as follows: 



CuEiMATA, Cuv. 



The whole external form of a Thymallus; small mouth, the first 

 dorsal above the ventrals, 8cc. Some of them resemble certain 

 Thymalli in their teeth which are only visible with the glass, 

 and merely differ from them in the number of their branchial 

 rays.(2) 



Others have a range of teeth in each jaw, which are trenchant, 

 directed obliquely forwards, the anterior ones longest, and, in a word, 

 comparable to those of a Balistes.(3) From the rivers of South 

 America. 



(1) This fish, which Is most certauily the .Argentina of Willughby, 229, and 

 consequently that of Artedi and Linnreus, always has a second adipose dorsal, as 

 was observed by Brunnich, Icth. mass., 79; it should therefore have been placed 

 among the Salmons. The Argent, machnata, Forsk., is the Elops saurus; this is 

 also, most probably, the case with the .^rg-ewf. caro/ma of Lin., although Catesby 

 has omitted the dorsal in the fig. cited, Car., II, xxiv. The Argentina of Grono- 

 vlus is an Anchovy, and that of Pennant a Scopelus, Serpe of Risso. The Argent, 

 glossodonta, Forsk., is a particular genus, the Butirinus of Commerson. 



(2) Sahno edentulus, Bl., 380; S. unimaculatus, Bl., 381, 3; S. tseniurus, Va- 

 len. App. Humb., Zool. Obs., II, p. 166; S. curima,C\xv., Marcgr., 156; Curi- 

 mate G-ilbert, Quay et Gaym, Voy. de Freyc. Zool., pi. xlviii, f. 1; and probably 

 S. ct/prinoides, Gronov., Zooph., No. 378. They are the Pacu, Spix, XXXVIII, 

 and XXXIX. His Axodus, XL and XLI, only differs in tlie moutl), which is ra- 

 ther more cleft. 



(3) Sahno fasciatus, Bl., 379; S. Fridericii, Id., 378. 



