MALACOPTERYGII ABDOMINALES. 241 



Amia, Lin. 



The Amiae are closely related to the Erythrini in their jaws, teeth, 

 and head, which latter is covered with hard and bony plates, in their 

 large scales, and in the flat rays of their branchiae; but there are twelve 

 of these rays. Between the branches of their lower jaw is a sort of 

 bony buckler, the rudiment of which is visible in Megalops and 

 Elops; behind their conical teeth are others resembling small paving- 

 stones, and their dorsal, which commences between the pectorals 

 and ventrals, extends close to the caudal. The anal, on the contra- 

 ry, is short. Each nostril is provided with a little tubular appen- 

 dage. The stomach is ample and fleshy, the intestine wide, strong, 

 and without caeca, and what is very remarkable, the natatory blad- 

 der is cellular, like the lung of a reptile. 



A. calva^ L.j Bl., Schn.; 80.(1) The only species known; it 



is found in the rivers of Carolina, where it feeds on crabs. It is 



rarely eaten. 



SuDis, Cuv.(2) 



Fresh-water fishes which have all the characters of an Erythrinus, 

 except that their dorsal and anal, placed opposite to each other and 

 of about an equal size, occupy the last third of the total length of 

 the body. 



There is one species with a very short snout, Sudis Adanso- 

 nii, Cuv., brought from the Senegal by Adanson, and another, 

 S. gigas, Cuv.; ^S*. pirarucu, Spix, XVI, of a very great size, 

 with an oblong snout, large bony scales, and singularly rough 

 head, from Brazil. A third, S. niloticus, Ehr., discovered by M. 

 Ehrenberg in the Nile, has a singular spiral tube which adheres 

 to the third branchia, perhaps somewhat analogous to that ob- 

 served in Anabas and other neighbouring genera. The 



OsTEOGLOssuM, Vaiidelli, 



Has many points of resemblance with Sudis, but is particularly dis- 

 tinguished from that genus by two cirri which float from beneath 

 the symphysis of the lower jaw; the anal is united with the caudal; 

 the tongue is bony and excessively asperous from the circumstance 

 of its being so completely covered with short, straight, and trun- 



(1) N.B. The ^mia immaculaia, Schn., 451, or the Macabi, Parra, XXXV, 1, 

 3, 5, is nothing more than the Butirin banane. 



(2) Sudis, a name employed by Pliny as synonymous with Sphyrsena. 



Vol. II. 2 F 



