186 RIBAND-SHAPED. 



sufficiently known. The work of Cuvier and M. Valen- 

 ciennes contains the characters of three species, — lepturus, 

 haumela, and savala. Mr. J. E. Gray has published the 

 characters of three species in the collection at the British 

 Museum, under the names of armatus, intermedins, and 

 muticus, in the first part of his Zoological Miscellany, pages 

 9 and 10 ; and representations of three species will be found 

 in that part of the Animal Kingdom, by Edward Griffiths, 

 Esq. and others, which is devoted to Fishes, plate 9. 

 The number of fin-rays in T. lepturus are — 



D. 135 or 6 : P. 11. 



Mr. Hoy remarks, that as the second fish appeared to be 

 very fresh, a cut of it was boiled, which he tasted, and found 

 to be very good, approaching nearly in taste to the Wolf- 

 fish, Anarhichas lupus, Avhich he had an opportunity of 

 tasting only a few days before. 



The figure at the head of the present article, which will 

 assist an observer in determining correctly the true Trichiu- 

 rus lepturus in the event of its occurring on the coast, is 

 derived from Bloch ; and subjoined is an abridged descrip- 

 tion of this fish from the work of Cuvier and M. Valen- 

 ciennes. 



The height of the body at the deepest part is to the 

 whole length, reckoning from the point of the nose to the 

 end of the hair-like tail, as one to sixteen or seventeen : 

 at about one-half of the whole length of the fish the body 

 begins to diminish in size, and continues declining, the 

 latter fifth portion being little more than the slender tail : 

 the length of the head, from the point of the lower jaw, 

 which is the longest, to the end of the operculum, is equal 

 to one-eighth of the whole length of the body ; the descend- 

 ing line of the profile from the nape to the nose is straight ; 



