LAMPRIS LAUTA. 29 



upon a level with the top of the eye, half way between it and the tip of the 

 muzzle. 



The mouth and gape are small. The maxillaries are short, not much dilated 

 at their ends, which play within a groove, opening into several cracks or sinuses 

 behind the corners of the mouth, which give more extensibility and freedom to 

 the jaws. Lower jaw longer, and lower lip larger and thicker than the upper ; 

 tied down to the jawbone towards the comers of the mouth where it is also 

 broadest, by a single strong cartilage. Both jaws, as well as the palate and whole 

 mouth, are entirely without teeth, and smooth. 



Tongue rather narrow, free, distinct, perfectly smooth and even ; the pharyngeal 

 plates in the oesophagus only, on dissection, proving to be armed with short, white, 

 recurved conic spines or points : the oesophagus was filled with half-decomposed re- 

 mains of the softer-coated isopodous Crustacese (Sea Woodlice). This smoothness 

 of the whole tongue has since been verified in several more specimens. It seems 

 to afford an obvious distinction from the British fish described by Mr. Harrison in 

 Pennant as having " the tongue thick, resembling that of a man, but rough and 

 thick-set with beards or prickles, pointing backwards, so that anything might 

 easily pass down, but could not easily return back, therefore these might serve 

 instead of teeth to retain its prey."* By Fleming, the tongue is described to be 

 " thick and rough, with reflected prickles :"f and Yarrell says that it is " thick 

 with rough papillte pointing backwards, and well calculated to assist in conveying 

 food towards the phari/nx" X In the Madeiran fish, the pharynx only is thus 

 armed : not only the tongue, but the whole mouth, as far back as can be seen or 

 felt without dissection, being perfectly smooth. 



MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes do not describe either the tongue, or the oeso- 

 phagus, of their fish. They found,, however, in the stomach, a great quantity of 

 the remains of the eight-armed Cuttle-fish (Octopus) ; and quote M. Faber as 

 repoiling, on the information of the Iceland fishermen, that the Lampris pursues 

 trouts. If this difference of food were constant, it might account, perhaps, for a 

 corresponding difference in the tongue, none existing as to teeth. To retain the 

 strong and active Trout or Octopus, the reversed prickles or papillae might be ne- 

 cessary, which were not required to secure the small crustaceae found in the Ma- 

 deiran smooth-tongued fish ; yet it is plain from the kind of bait employed for 

 its capture, that this last also preys sometimes on other fishes. 



Both in the present, and in other individuals, the branchial membrane had 

 assuredly only six rays on each side. The European fish is, both by MM. Cu- 

 vier and Valenciennes, and Mr. Yavrell, described as having seven branchial rays ; 

 yet Retzius, Faber, and Nilsson, agree in attributing to it only six. 



The shoulders and axils of the pectoral fins are plain and even, the humeral 

 and superscapulary bones not being visible externally to the eye. 



The dorsal fin begins rather forwarder than it is either figured or described to 

 do by MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes : i. e. about opposite the middle of the base of 

 the pectoral fins, instead of " a little behind their hinder edge." It rises at once 

 into a high and falcate point in front, which scarcely equals one-fifth of the whole 

 length of the fish. It descends again almost as abruptly ; and then continues in 

 an even line, of nearly equal height, and very low or nan'ow, scarcely appearing 

 out of the fleshy groove in which it is concealed when collapsed, till just before its 

 end, close to the tail ; where it becomes again broader and rounded. The sides of 

 its groove rise gradually higher backwards, and are scaly ; the fin itself is al- 

 together naked. The first ray is a very short, thick, indistinct, triangular bone 



* Penn. Brit. Zool. ed. 1776. iii. 224. f Flem. Brit. Anim. i. 220. 



X Yarr. Brit. Fish. i. 175. 



