133 



FIERASFER. 



THE body long and tapering; vent placed near the throat. Gill 

 openings wide, the gill membranes united below: particularly dis- 

 tinguished from Ophidium by the absence of barbies. An apodal 

 genus of fishes. 



DKUMMOND'S ECHIODON. 



Fierasfer dentatus, CUVIER. 



Echiodon drummondii, THOMPSON; Trans. Zool. Society, vol. ii. 



" YA.RRELL; British Fishes, vol. ii, p. 417. 



Fierasfer dentatus, GUNTHER; Catalogue British Museum, 



vol. iv, p. 383. 



ALMOST the whole of what we know of this fish is contained 

 in a communication by W. Thompson, Esq., of Belfast, to the 

 Zoological Society, with a figure, which we have copied; and 

 the comnmnication is transferred to the fourth volume of the 

 "Natural History of Ireland" by the same gentleman : to 

 which we add, that an example of the same species has 

 been since caught, or rather found, thrown on the shore by 

 a storm, in the harbour of Valencia, in Ireland; and several 

 others of small size were found by Mr. Edwards at Banff, of 

 which we shall give an account. Mr. Thompson remarks that 

 in external characters it is excluded from the Ophia by not 

 having barbies; and although it agrees with the genus Fierasfer 

 in being without these appendages, yet by having the dorsal 

 fin elevated and strongly developed, it does not range with 

 them; to which I add, that this character is excluded from 

 our definition as above, since it might seem like a contradiction 

 to classify under such a character the only British tish of 

 the genus, and which cannot be so described. The author 

 further says in Cuvier's Animal Kingdom the Ophidium 



