DIPLECTRUM FASCICULARE. 35 



Dimensions. There are three heads and a half between the angle of the opcrcle 

 and the tip of the tail ; the elevation is less than a head without the dorsal fin, 

 and a head and one eighth with it ; total length, fourteen inches. 



Splanchnology. The liver is of large size, and the left lobe, which makes the greater portion of its 

 bulk, extends half as far back as the stomach ; the central portion is thick, joins the left lobe 

 without a fissure, and seems to be continuous with it. The gall-bladder is a long tube, extending 

 almost as far back as the stomach ; it is narrow, and only becomes considerably developed at the 

 right lobe of the liver. The stomach extends through nearly two thirds of the abdominal cavity ; 

 it is sub-cylindrical, pointed behind, with thick muscular walls ; the pyloric portion goes off from be- 

 hind the middle, and is short, sub-conical, with very thick walls, and has a remarkable contraction 

 at the pylorus. The small intestine runs half-way to the vent, and then returns to the pylorus, 

 whence it is reflected to end in the rectum, with an indistinct rectal valve. There are seven coscal 

 appendages, an inch or more long, though one is often in a rudimental state. The spleen is long, 

 slender, closely connected to the small intestine and ccecal appendages. The air-bladder is large, 

 as it extends the whole length of the*abdomcn ; it is a little broader before than behind, and has 

 exceedingly thin and transparent walls. 



Habits. Little can be said of the habits of this fish ; it however appears in 

 our waters in May or June, and remains until November ; it is occasionally taken 

 with the hook on the Black-fish grounds, but is never abundant. 



Geographical Distribution. The Squirrel-fish is found along the Atlantic 

 coast of America from Brazil to the Carolinas, which must for the present be 

 considered as its extreme northern limit. 



General Remarks. This animal was first described by Cuvier and Valen- 

 ciennes, in the second volume of their great work on Ichthyology, as the Serranus 

 fasciciilaris ; and subsequently, much more fully, in the seventh volume, from spe- 

 cimens taken in Carolina. Although the Squirrel-fish has many of the characters 

 of the true Serrani, yet it diff'ers from them in so many others, — as in its elon- 

 gated form, and slightly compressed body, its long dorsal fin, and in the two 

 rounded groups of radiating spines at its pre-opercle, — that I have established 

 for it the genus Diplectrum. 



