244 Dr. Hancock on some species of Fishes and Reptiles 



The second sipecies of Hassar to which I have refert-ed, or the rounds 



head, appears to be a new species of Callichthys, Linn., differing from the 



Silurus Callichthys^ (Ejusd. Syst. Nat.) and from the Call, asper, Quoy 



and Gaim., by its forked tail; and from the Cataphr actus punctatus, 



Bloch, by its thicker form, the slighter emargination of its caudal fin, and 



its uniform colour. From the new species indicated by M. Cuvier, it 



may also be distinguished by the first ray of its pectoral fins not being 



dentated, but merely rough and rasp-like. 



Callichthys littoralis. 



Call, caudd hifidd ; corpora crassiore: pinnce pectoralis radio prima 



aspero, 



D. I, 1. P. i. V. 6. A. 7. C. 14. 



Tab. Supp. xxxii, fig. 1. 



The whole body is covered with a coat of mail, with a double series of 

 costiform plates, and a single narrow row on the back ; they are all so 

 fastened together by intervening muscular bands as to admit of motion in 

 every direction. The tail is forked, the head covered with a very hard 

 and strong shell, the eye small, with golden iris, the mouth has two drri 

 at each corner. 



head, and whole body, except the thorax, are guarded as it were by a coat of 

 mail, consisting of strong bony plates, supporting four longitudinal rows of 

 curved spines on each side ; colour of the body bright reddish yellow, ele- 

 gantly variegated with black spots ; the fins red at the extremities. It grows 

 to about a foot in length. 



Gill membrane four-rayed. Anterior dorsal fin ^, second dorsal fleshy. 

 Pectoral ^, ventrical |. Caudal 17. This may be identical with the Locaria 

 plecostomus of Bloch, on the colouring of whose plates implicit reliance can- 

 not be placed. Its arms were more strongly developed than in Bloch's figure, 

 but in general form, colour, and disposition of its plates, it appears nearly iden- 

 tical. 



Another fish, approximating to the present genus, I had an opportunity to 

 observe, at the Portugueze Fort of St. Juaquin (the site of the fabled lake of 

 Parima). It was there called Baco ; whole length three feet ; body angular, en- 

 veloped in strong, bony, angular plates, studded with a single row of spines on 

 each side, hooked backwards; colour uniform dark gray. This fish exhibits a 

 striking union of characters of two genera ; in respect to form, of the head and 

 breast especially, it is a Silurus ; in its mailed body a perfect Loricaria ; head 

 flat, and sloping in a strait line from the dorsal fin ; first ray of the dorsal and 

 pectoral fins a very strong spine, the other fins fleshy. 



