TETRAGONUEUS ATLANTICUS. 189, 



The above discrepancies, it must be remembered, refer only to MM. 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes'' account of the Mediterranean fish. With 

 Risso's brief description, as far as it goes, the Madeiran fish agrees so 

 well, that its identity might not have appeared questionable. But it 

 must be remarked that he omits all the proportions and comparative mea- 

 surements, in which chiefly the differences consist. 



MM. Cuvier and Valenciennes having furnished a complete account of the 

 anatomy of their fish, it seemed needless to sacrifice an unique example for the 

 purpose. According to these authors, the peritoneum in the Mediterranean fish is 

 blackisli-brown (brun noiratre) : the liver of a fine yellow, and divided into two 

 equal lobes, embracing the oesophagus and stomach. The cesophagus is long and 

 blackish, furnished within with numerous long, pointed j^O-jnUce, which are quite 

 soft; not hard, as stated formerly by Cuvier in the Regne Animal (2*^. Ed. ii. 

 233). The stomach is a very long conic pointed sack, extending to the ex- 

 tremity of the ventral cavity. Its ascending branch springs from about the mid- 

 dle of the cone formed by the cesophagus and stomach together ; and here, near the 

 pylorus, its parietes are somewhat thickened, without however dilating into a 

 bulbous gizzard. The ca:ca are numerous, unequal in length, and arranged sym- 

 metrically. The intestine is rather long, making one complete volution, and two 

 half ones. There is no air-bladder : and the spine consists of thirty-six abdominal 

 and twenty-two caudal vertebrae, making fifty-eight in all. The sex of the in- 

 dividual examined was indeterminable. 



The unique example of the Madeiran fish here figured was nine inches 

 and a quarter long. The right-hand lower figure is a three-quarter view, 

 the size of life, of the mouth ; showing more perfectly than when seen 

 in profile the peculiar mode in which it closes, and the form of both 

 the jaws. The lower extreme left-hand figure is a magnified fore portion 

 of the lower jaw, to show the teeth and gums. The middle figure is the 

 bottom or inside of the fore part of the lower jaw, with the fore part of 

 the tongue in sitti ; its tip lying between the points of the fleshy horseshoe 

 inside the tip of the jaw. 



