314 



MUR.ENID.E. 



APODAL 



MALACOPTERYGIl. MUBJENIDJE. 



THE BEARDLESS OPHIDIUM. 



Ophidhim imberhe, Linnaeus. 



n ,, Beardless Ophidium, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 208, pi. 29. 



>. ), ,, ,, Montagu, Wern. Mem. vol. i. p. 95, 



pi. 4, f. 2. 

 ., ,, ,, ,, Flem. Brit. An. p. 201, sp, 112. 



Generic Characters. — Head smooth ; body elongated, compressed ; teeth in 

 both jaws, the palate, and pharynx ; gill -aperture rather large ; dorsal, anal, 

 and caudal fin united. 



The Beardless Ophidium was first added to the ca- 

 talogue of British Fishes by Pennant, to whom it was com- 

 municated by the Duchess of Porthand : the specimen was 

 found near Weymouth. Pennant gave a figure of his fish 

 in the Appendix to the fourth volume of the British Zoolo- 

 gy, edition of 1777, but no description. Colonel Montagu 

 afterwards obtained a specimen on the south coast of Devon, 

 which is figured and described in the first volume of the 

 Wernerian Memoirs, as quoted. The editor of the edition 

 of Pennant's British Zoology, published in 1812, left out 

 the figure of the Beardless Ophidium, given in the previous 

 edition, but copied the figure and description of Colonel 

 Montasfu. 



