21. coBYPn,aiNA. 405 



extending from the occiput nearly to the caudal, which is deeply 

 forked ; no distinct dorsal and anal spines ; the ventrals are well 

 developed, and can be partly received in a groove on the abdomen. 

 Scales very small. Cardiform teeth in the jaws, on the vomer and 

 the palatine bones; a patch of villiform teeth on the tongue. 

 Uranchiostegals seven ; pseudobranchia) and air-bladder absent. 

 Pyloric appendages exceedingly numerous. 



Inhabitants of the high seas of the temperate and tropical regions. 



In the last part of the Histoire Naturelh des Poissons, prepai-ed by 

 Cu\ier himself, an incomplete note by some author, or a rough sketch 

 by a traveller, a different locality, a slight mocUfication of an organ, 

 accidental in an individual specimen, or dependent on age, have been 

 deemed sufficient reasons by liim for the creation of a number of 

 species, the names of which wiU be a heavy encumbrance to the 

 sj-nonymy for a long time to come. This tendency in the later years 

 of Cuvier appears to culminate in his treatment of Corypluvna. He 

 declared himself to be rather uncertain as to the importance of the 

 different relative height of the crest on the neck, and acknowledges 

 the possibility of the existence of sexual differences (pp. 311 & 314) ; 

 but he did not notice the remarkable circumstance that aU his spe- 

 cimens with a high crest and an elevated dorsal fin {Coryplianm) 

 were of large size, whilst his genus Lampuguswaa composed of fishes 

 not exceeding 2 feet in length ! I have no doubt, from comparison 

 not only of the specimens in this collection, but of many others, that 

 the crest and the anterior part of the dorsal fin become gradually 

 higher with age, and that Lamimgus is the immature state of Cory- 

 phmia. Whether there is also a shght difference between the sexes 

 in this respect, I am not able to decide. 



The single species of Coryphcena are difficult to distinguish. If 

 the coloration reaUy were of great specific value, those who examine 

 preserved specimens cannot avail themselves of it. "We depend, there- 

 fore, entirely on the relative height of the body and on the number 

 of the fin-rays, which, in spite of its being considerable, appears to 

 be very constant in the different species. We are enabled, by these 

 characters, to cii'cumsciibe several very distinct forms. Cu\ier has 

 not acknowledged the identity of the Atlantic and Indian Coryphancti 

 (although he has done so in other genera), and yet he could not 

 point out their differences. In a family Hke the Scomhricke, which 

 is nearly entirely composed of fishes inhabiting the high seas, and 

 endowed with a wonderfid power of swimming, it is of no conse- 

 quence whether the same species be found in the Atlantic, in the 

 Indian Ocean, and in the Pacific. 



1. Coryphseua Mppurus. 



A. Doubtful synomjmy. 

 Kopvipaiva, Aristof. lib. v. c. 10. 

 "Imrovpos, Aristof. lib. viii. c. 15; Athcn. lib. vii. v. 301; Oppian.'i. 



184, ill. 180, iv. 404. 

 Ilippurus, Olid. Hal. v. 05: Plin. lib. ix. c. 1(), lib. xxxii. c. 11. 



