The Rev. R. T. Lowe on the Fishes d/ Madeira. 405 



in the latter, and on which the peculiar value of this species seems 

 to depend, is a large spindle-shaped organ about half the length of 

 the fish, thick in the middle and tapering toward the extremities, 

 where it ends in front by two, and behind by a single tendinous 

 cord; similar small tendinous attachments, about twenty-two in 

 number, connect it on either side to the upper and lateral parts of 

 the abdominal cavity. This organ, which is called the sound, is to 

 be removed, opened,' and stript of a thin vascular membrane which 

 covers it both within and without, washed perhaps with lime water 

 and exposed to the sun, when it will soon become dry and hard ; it 

 may require some further preparation to deprive it of its fishy smell, 

 after which it may be drawn into shreds for the purpose of render- 

 ing it the more easily soluble. The fish which I examined weighed 

 about two pounds and yielded about sixty-five grains of Isinglass, 

 not quite pure, but containing about 10 per cent, of albuminous 

 matter, owing perliaps to the individual from which it was taken 

 being young and out of season, and not above a tenth part of the 

 ordinary size of the species. But the solution after having been 

 strained appeared to be equal to that of the best Isinglass, which 

 costs in Calcutta from twelve to sixteen rupees a pound. As the 

 subject thus seemed to be of consequence, I gave a portion of the 

 substance in question to Dr. O'Shaughnessy for its chemical ex- 

 amination. 



Calcutta, 3rd May, 1839. 



LI. — A Supplement to the Synopsis of the Fishes of Madeira* 

 in the Second Volume of the Transactions of the Zoological 

 Society. By the Rev. R. T. Lowe. 



Fam. Percid^. 

 Genus Callanthias. 



Gen. char. — Head scaly, except the short muzzle before the eyes ; 

 teeth as in Anthias, Bl. ; preopercle perfectly entire ; opercle with 

 two flat adpressed spines ; lateral line high up, near the back, and 

 ending at the end of the dorsal fin, which is even or continuous ; 

 branchiostegous membrane with six rays. 



Callanthias paradis^us. A most elegant little fish ; in general 

 habit and colouring resembling Anthias sacer, Bl., but without the 

 produced third spine of the dorsal fin. Its analogies are singularly 

 complicated, but its affinities are truly Percidous. By Bloch it might 



* Read before the Zoological Society, May 28, 1839. 



