133 



FTEllASFETl. 



TnR hody long and taperiiii;:; vent pl'ic^il near the throat. Gill 

 opcnini>s wide, the gill membranes united below: particularly dis- 

 tinguislied I'rom Ophidium by the absence of barbies. An apodal 

 genus of fishes. 



DRUMMOND'S ECHIODON. 



F'lernafpr dentatus, Cuvier. 



Echindun drummondii, Thompson'; Trans. Zool. Society, vol. ii. 



' " Yakrell; British Fishes, vol. ii, p. 117. 



Fierasfei- dentatus, Gunthek; Catalogue British Museum, 



vol. iv, p. 3So. 



Almost the whole of what we know of this fish is contairicd 

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

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

 the commainication 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 [reland; and several 

 others of small size were found by Mr. Edw^ards at Banff, of 

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

 in external characters it is excluded from the Opliia by not 

 having barbies; and although it agrees with the genus Fierasf^r 

 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 froiu 

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

 to classify under such a character tlie only British, lish of 

 the genus, and which cannot be so descri])e(] 'J he author 

 lurther says in Cuvier's Animal Kingdom the Ophidium 



