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— : fccteri Fishes. 'O Vtoffc 55 1 



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in my sketch. Mr. Pennant calls the gill opening large ; to 

 me it appears small. The head is small, but not resembling 

 that of Mr. Pennant's figure, and straight with the line of 

 the back. From the nose to the back of the skull is one 

 fourth of an inch long : the eye large, prominent, and the 

 pupil of a bright silvery or rather pearly lustre, with broad 

 dark prussian blue iris. The body is 5J in. long, one eighth 

 of an inch thick, and seven sixteenths of an inch deep from the 

 back to the belly. It is compressed laterally in a remarkable 

 manner; pellucid, bright, and silvery. The lateral line is 

 straight, and decussated at acute angles by oblique striae. The 

 dorsal fin does not, as Mr. Pennant describes and figures it, 

 extend the whole length of the back, but commences at 2 J in. 

 from the point of the nose, and unites at the tail with the anal, 

 which latter fin commences 3f in. from the tip of the nose : 

 they are both very low, and delicately thin. The pectoral 

 fins, which were overlooked by Mr. Pennant, are minute and 

 cartilaginous : caudal and ventral fins none. It appears to 

 me nearly allied to the launce (Ammodytes Tobidnus), which 

 abounds in our bay (Start Bay). — Henry Vietz Deere, 

 Higher Start House, Slaj)ion, near Dartmouth, Devon, June 5. 



1833. jijod • 



Sir, Since sending to you my communication of the 4th 

 inst., I find, by referring to your Magazine, Vol. V. p. 313., 

 that I have been anticipated in my figure and description of 

 the Leptocephalus Morris//, in a paper by your learned 

 ichthyological correspondent, Mr. Couch of Polperro, Corn- 

 wall ; but his figure is less perfect than is desirable, as you 

 will perceive by comparing my description and figure with the 

 figure given in your Magazine. [Jig. 65.) In Vol. V. p. 74-2., 



I find further re- 

 marks on this spe- 

 cies of fish, by the 

 same correspondent. 

 He entertains no doubt of its being the Leptocephalus Mor- 

 ris// of Fleming; but thinks it sufficiently distinct from the 

 genus Leptocephalus of Pennant, from the discrepancies 

 pointed out by me in my description. I have little doubt 

 but that Pennant's fish was the same as mine; but he had 

 not an opportunity of examining it in so recent a state as 

 my specimen, whereby he could not discover the pectoral 

 fin, which is so extremely minute as not readily to be de- 

 tected, without close examination, even in a fresh specimen. 



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