Dr. A. Giinther on the History of Echeneis. 399 



calls E. osteochir, from the singularly compressed and ossified 

 rays of the pectoral : it also has not been recognized. It is 

 badly figured in the illustrated edition of the ( Regne Animal/ 

 and appears to have nineteen laminae in the disk on the head. 



6. Echeneis brachyptera, 



The Rev. R. T. Lowe, who has paid so much attention to the 

 distinction of the species of this genus, discovered a sixth. 

 After having shortly mentioned it in the ' Synopsis of the Fishes 

 of Madeira */ he fixed its place in the system by the name of 

 E. brachyptera, accompanying it with a proper diagnosis f. But 

 it appears to me that the species was long ago seen, and even 

 figured, by CatesbyJ. He calls it by the collective name of 

 Remora, but expressly enumerates sixteen laminse in the ad- 

 hesive disk, a number also indicated in the figure, which is 

 indifferently executed and posteriorly distorted. Catesby's 

 account is one of the truest found in the older works : " It can 

 fix itself to any animal or other substance : but the notion that 

 this small fish was able to stop a ship under sail, or a whale in 

 swimming, is entirely fabulous. I have taken five of them from 

 off the body of a shark, which were fixed so fast to different 

 parts of his body that it required great strength to separate 

 them. I have seen them disengaged and swimming very deli- 

 berately near the shark's mouth, without his attempting to 

 swallow them, the reason of which I am not able to give." 



Like the other species of Echeneis, the present is not confined 

 to a district of a certain sea, and was found, nearly at the same 

 time as by Mr. Lowe, by the naturalists attached to the expe- 

 dition of the French vessel ' La Favorite/ and by Storer. The 

 former have called it E. sexdecim-laminata , and think that their 

 specimen was caught in the Indian Ocean. Storer || himself pro- 

 cured a young specimen with only fourteen laminse in the disk, 

 and named it E. quatuordecim-laminatus. As this difference might 

 awaken doubts as to the specific identity of the fishes mentioned, I 

 have carefully compared Storer's description with a Brazilian, spe* 

 cimen evidently belonging to E. brachyptera, Lowe, and exhibit- 

 ing fifteen lamellae in the disk. Both agree very well, excepting 

 a slight difference in the number of the anal rays. Storer states, 

 moreover, that it has four ventral rays, which is evidently a 

 mistake. 



Having had the opportunity of comparing Chinese specimens 

 with others from the Atlantic, I do not hesitate to consider the 



* Transact. Zool. Soc. ii. p. 191. 



t Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1839, p. 89. 



t Histor. Nat. Carol, ii. p. 26, pi. 26. 



Eydoux and Gervais, Voy. Favor. Zool. p. 77, pi, 31. 



\\ Report Fishes Massach. p. 155. 



