GENUS TEMNODON. 61 



by Agassiz ; and it will be seen by a reference to his work,* that he has removed 

 from it many of the fishes which were formerly included among the Scombridae 

 of Cuvier ; and yet this family is still one of the most extensive, comprising more 

 than fifty genera, and more than three hundred known species. 



These fishes are in general more gregarious, and much more roving in their 

 habits, than the Percidse or the Scisenidse, as some of the species, according to 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes, are common, not only to the Atlantic shores of Europe, 

 Africa, and America, but to the more distant seas of Asia and New Holland. 

 Perhaps, of all the different families of fish, this may be considered as the most 

 useful to man, especially when we look to its many varieties, the excellent food 

 they all afford, and the immense numbers that are taken from this apparently 

 inexhaustible source. 



GENUS TEMNODON. — Cwmer. 



Characters. Body oblong, compressed ; jaws each with a single row of sepa- 

 rated, sharp-pointed, compressed, lancet-shaped teeth, upper jaw with an internal 

 series of crowded, villiform teeth ; vomerine and palatine teeth minute, villiform ; 

 tongue with similar small teeth near its root ; anal fin preceded by two small 

 spines ; tail without a carina ; branchial rays seven. 



Remarks. This genus of the family Scombridse was first established by 

 Cuvier, for the reception of a single species, the Gasterosteus saltatrLv of Lia- 

 nseus. 



* Rech. Poiss. Foss., torn. v. p. 16. 



