CODFISHES. 



539 



natural s}'stera for this piir[j()se. From Cuba, ISt. Fle- 

 lena, Madeira, and New Zealand we have Physicidns, 

 witiiout vomerine teeth and with more numerous rays 

 ill the ventral lins than J'/h/cIs, thouyii tlieir number 

 varies between 7 and 3. Uraleptits, from the Medi- 

 teri'anean and Madeira, is a Physiculus with canine teeth 

 set in a. row outside the smaller jaw-teeth. Ifcdopor- 

 pJii/nis, which occurs in the Mediterranean and the 

 Atlantic, from Portugal down to the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere, is a I'Jii/cis with reduced number of rays in 

 the first dorsal fin. Ant mora, from the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere and the Atlantic south of Newfoundland, is a 

 Halo^xDjiJii/nis with elongated snout, a character which 

 it possesses iiT common with the majority of the Ma- 

 crurid(e, and with the anal fin almost divided into two 

 sections, a ])oint ^vhich reminds us of Merlucius. Thus 

 the Phi/cis type is extremely variable. 



The history of the fry approximates Phycis to the 

 following genus". Young specimens about 30 — 35 mm. 

 long (fig. 129) are of a silvery. Mackerel-like colour, 

 resembling the fry of the Rocklings. The four or three 

 rays of the long ventral fins are united by a broad, 

 black-pigraented membrane, as in the fry of the Ling. 



Fig. 12it. YouDg specimen of Phycis blennoides, natural size. 

 After Facciol.4. II Naturalista Siciliano, Anno II (1882), p. 27. 



The scaly covering of Phycis is variable, but al- 

 •\vays better developed than in the preceding genera of 

 this family. The concentric stria^ (raised ridges) of the 

 scales are finelv but unevenlv crenulated, and for the 



Round the latter we also find either an irregular net- 

 work of fine stria' at the hind part of the scale, or a 

 trace of this network in the form of fine transverse 

 .stria3 between the concentric ones. In Phycis the lateral 

 line also runs over true scales, not, as in the preceding 

 genera of this family, witli its jiores opening in the 

 bare skin. The fine gi'ooves radiating towai-ds the 

 anterior margin are more distinct and more numerous 

 in the scales of the lateral line than in the others. 



In one species of this germs {Phycis rer/ins) Alex- 

 ander Agassiz, according to Buown-Goode and Bean'', 

 has observed a faculty of giving electric shocks, though 

 according to these writers this poAver is possessed by the 

 species onlj' when it lives in very deep water. Special 

 electric organs, however, have not been detected, and 

 the electric sensation mav probably be explained by 

 the vibration caused in tlie entire body of the fish b}' 

 the violent contraction of the large muscles. 



DelaroChe'' and Sokexsex'' have described the 

 air-bladder of Phycis mediteyraneus. It is divided by 

 two transverse contractions into three parts, internally 

 communicating with each other, the fir.st of A\hich 

 projects at the top into a pair of lateral horns attached 

 to the upper end of each of the clavicular bones, and 

 is furnished with a pair of transverse muscles at the 

 anterior part of its wall, one on each side. From this 

 structure Sop.exsex concludes that in Phycis mediter- 

 raneus the air-bladder is an organ of sound. 



Roxdelet" was the first to give this genus its name, 

 for in Aristotle' (pvAg: was certainly some other fish: 

 "the only marine fish of which it is stated that it makes 

 a bed in Avhich to give birth to its young." The name 

 was introduced into the modern nomenclature of science 



most part run parallel to each other, most of them (the 



outer ones) extending to the margin of the scale both , by Aktedi'' and Bloch-Schxeider*. The Swedish name 



in front and behind, which is the case in front with of Bartelfish (Beard-fish) was bestowed upon the genus 



all of them. The nucleus, which lies near the hind 

 extremity of the scale, is extremely narroAV and elong- 

 ated, and is continued forward in a groove to the ex- 

 treme front margin of the scale, only the inner con- 

 centric stria' being thus continuous behind the nucleus. 



by Fries in the first edition of this work (p. 77). 



The genus contains seven species', five of which 

 belong to the ^Mediterranean and the European side of 

 the Atlantic. The Scandinavian fauna contains only 

 one of them. 



" LiiTKEN, Vid. Meddel. Naturh. Forli. Kbhvn 1881, p. 252; Agassiz, Yoting Osseous Fishes. Proe. Ainer. Acad. Arts, Sc. voL XVII. 

 p. 296, tab. VIII, figs. 2 and 3; Facciola, II Naturalista Siciliano, Anno II (1882), p. 25; Emery, Mittli. Zool. Stat. Neapel. Bd. 6, p. 159. 

 . * Bull. Mus. CVuip. Zool., Harv. Coll., vol. X. p. 204. 



' Ann. Mus. D'Hist. Nat. Paris, XIV (1809), pp. 193 and 190. 



'' Om Lydorijaner has Fiske, p. 156, tab. IV, fig. 59. 



« De Pise, Lib. VI, cap. X. p. 186. 



/ De Anim. Lib. VIII, cap. XXX. 



!' Gen. Pise, p. 84; Syn. Pise. p. 111. Hence tbe Blennivs Phi/cis of Liss.eus, Syst. Xat.. ed. XII. torn. 1, p. 442. 



* S>/st. Ichlh., [I. 56. 



' 11, if we include Lamonema. 



