182 



KIBAND-SHAPED. 



ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



RIBAND-SHAPED. 



THE SILVERY HAIRTAIL. 



Trichiurus lepturus, Linn.'eus. Bloch, pt. v. pi. 158. 



>, ,, Cuv. et Valenc. Hist. Nat. des Poiss. t. viii. p. 237. 



,, ,, Hoy, Linu. Tran.s. vol. xi. p. 210. 



„ ,, Blade Jish, FLT.M.Biit. An. p.204,sf.U5. 



Generic Characters. — Head and body very much resembling those of the 

 fishes of the genus Lepidopus last described ; no ventral fins, nor scales instead; 

 no anal fin ; tail without rays, ending in a single elongated hair-like filament 

 (from which the generic name is derived) ; branchiostegous rays 7. 



Two specimens of fishes regarded as belonging to the 

 genus Trichiurus have been found dead on the shore of the 

 Moray Frith, both of which were examined by Mr. James 

 Hoy, a Fellow of the Linnean Society, and an account of 

 them published in the Transactions of the Society as quoted. 



" On the second of November 1810, after a high wind 

 from the north, a specimen of the Trichiurus lepturus, 

 Linn, was cast upon the shore of the Moray Frith, near the 

 fishing village of Port Gordon, about three miles cast from 

 the mouth of the river Spcy; and it was brought to me the 

 next day, as a kind of fish which had never been seen before 

 by any of the fishermen in tins part of the country. They 



