ICHTHYOLOGY. 



179 



Acantliop. 



tervcfii. 

 Squaninii- 



pennes. 



//. macrolepidotus is a larpc fisli, celebrated in the 

 East for the excellence of its tlavour. It is called Vlag- 

 man by the Dutcli colonists, in allusion to the long fila- 

 ment upon the back. They also name it Ttifel-visch, on 

 account of its frequent use as food. Iluysch asserts that 

 at Amboyna no good dinner is ever served without it, and 

 he compares its taste to that of the finest flounder. The 

 specimens hitherto sent to Europe do not seem to exceed 

 the length of ten inches; but the species must at times 

 greatly exceed that size, if, as llenard and Valentyn as- 

 sert, it weighs from twenty to twenty-five pounds. As 

 an example of this extraordinary genus we have figured 

 Heuochius moitoceros, a species recently transmitted from 

 the Isle of France by MM. Quoy and Gaimard, Plate 

 CCCI. fig. 4. The specimen represented does not mea- 

 sure above seven inches, and its height is almost equal to 

 its length. 



The genus Zanclus of Commerson is closely allied to 

 the preceding, but the scaling is so much more delicate 

 that the skin appears almost smooth to the naked eye. 

 The external aspect is, if possible, still more extraordi- 

 nary. We have here engraved L. cornutus of Cuv. 

 (Plate CCCI. fig. 8), which, on account probabl3f of its 

 singular form and horned front, has become an object al- 

 most of superstitious reverence among the fishermen of 

 the Moluccas. It is alleged, that when they happen to 

 capture one of this species, they immediately salute it 

 by certain genuflexions, and then cast it into the sea. It 

 is, however, an excellent table fish, which attains a weight 

 of fifteen pounds, and resembles the turbot in flavour. It 

 is rather widely diffused, occurring both in the Indian seas 

 and Pacific Ocean. 



Genus Ephippus, Cuv. Distinguished by a deep 

 emargination between the spinous and softer portion of 

 the dorsal fin ; the former part has no scales, and can be 

 folded into a groove on the back. 



An American species (E. gigas) is remarkable for the 

 great club-shaped enlargement of the first inter-spinal of 

 the anal and dorsal fins, and by a similar enlargement of 

 the crest of the cranium. A fish which may be referred 

 to a subdivision of this genus, occurs among the fossils of 

 Mount Bolca.' 



Baron Cuvier has remarked,^ that among all the strange 

 and fantastic fishes preserved in the representations of 

 Ruysch, Renard, and Valentyn,' and which have so long 

 excited the mistrust of naturalists, none seems more likely 

 to provoke that feeling than the species which these wri- 

 ters designate by the Malay name of Skankarbauiu, or buf- 

 falo-fish ; and yet it now turns out that none is more 

 accordant with the truth of nature. Its sharp recurved 

 horns, the protuberance above the head, the compressed 

 and unequal spines, and the singular distribution of colour, 

 — all exist in a species recently received from the Indian 

 Archipelago. It has accordingly been named Taurich- 

 THYS by Cuvier, — the Greek translation of the Malay 

 name. The species here figured is T. varius, which is 

 from four to six inches long, with a height almost equal to 

 its length. See Plate CCCI. fig. 7. 



Genus Holacanthus, Lacep. A large spine at the 



pennes. 



angle of the pre-opercle, the margins of which are usually Acanthop- 

 dentated. terygii. 



The s|)ecies are remarkable for the great beauty and ^quamnn- 

 synuiietrical distribution of their colours, and for their ex- 

 cellence as articles of food. They are numerous both in 

 the Indian and American seas. One of the most celebrat- 

 ed for the splendour and singularity of its aspect, is that 

 named the Emperor of Japan by the Dutch, Chmtodon 

 JmperatoT of Bloch, figured in many works. Its body is 

 deep blue, traversed all over by about two and thirty nar- 

 row bands of orange yellow.'* The pectoral fins are black, 

 and the entire tail bright yellow. It is a large fish of its 

 kind, sometimes attaining the length of fifteen inches, and, 

 as an article of food, is one of the most esteemed of all the 

 Indian species, resembling our own much-prized salmon in 

 flavour. Another and more recently discovered species is 

 H. semicircidatus, Cuv. It occurs both at Timor and New 

 Ireland. Its colours are white and blue, its length from four 

 to five inches. The inhabitants of Waigiou call it Mami. 



Genus Platax, Cuv. Anterior to the brush-like 

 teeth, a row of cutting teeth, each of which is divided into 

 three points ; body much compressed, and apparently pro- 

 longed into thick, greatly elevated, scaly, vertical fins, 

 in the anterior edge of which a small number of spines lie 

 concealed. 



Almost all the known species occur either in the Indian 

 or Pacific Oceans. One or two were found by Ruppell in 

 the Red Sea. They are esteemed as food. Words can 

 convey but a feeble idea of the anomalous form of these 

 fishes, some of which, if we include the vertical fins, are 

 more than twice as high as they are long. We here figure 

 the ChcEtodon teira of Bloch, wliich is a true Platax, Plate 

 CCCI. fig. 6. It was brought by M. Dussumier from the 

 coast of Malabar. It is said to attain to the length of two 

 feet, a g^eat size for a fish of this genus, many of which 

 measure only a few inches. P. punctulatus, indeed, may 

 be regarded as one of the smallest of known fishes, as it 

 is only an inch long. It occurs at Timor. 



Genus Psettus, Commerson. Form resembling the 

 preceding ; but all the teeth are small and crowded, and 

 the ventral fins are reduced to a single small spine, without 

 soft rays. 



The species are natives of the Indian seas. Their teeth 

 are rather short and close than in the usual bristle-like 

 form of our present tribe of Squammipennes, yet they can- 

 not be arranged under tribe third, in as far as they want 

 the teeth iqion the palate. The Chcetodoti rhombeus of 

 Bloch and Schneider belongs to this genus. It was an- 

 ciently represented by Seba (t. iii. pi. 26, fig. 21), and 

 now bears the name of Psettus Sebce. The species is ex- 

 tremely rare, and its native country was unknown, till in 

 recent times a specimen was transmitted from the Senegal 

 coast by M. Perottet. It measures six inches in length, 

 and is considerably higher than long. See Plate CCCII. 

 fig. 1. 



Tribe 2rf. With cutting teeth. 



Genus Pimelepterus, Lacep. Distinguished from 

 all other fishes by a single range of teeth borne upon a ho- 



' Itliol. Veronese, plate 5, fig. 2. • I/ist. Nat. dcs Poissorrs, t. vii. p. 146. 



' The works alluded to above are the following : — 1. The Theutrum Atiimalbwi of Henry lUiysch (son <it' the celebrated anato- 

 mist), two vols, in folio, Anisterd. 1718, which is in fact a tliird edition of Johnston's prior work of the same name, with the addition 

 of the plates of fishes, to be afterwards noticed. 2. A Dutch work entitled East India, Ancient and Modern, in five vols, folio, Am- 

 sterd. 1724-26. The author was Francis Valentyn, a Protestant clergyman of Amboyna. 3. A Collection of P'igures of Fish, and 

 other ."Marine Creatures, published by Francis Renard, in one vol. foho, Amsterd. 17.34. This recucil was formed about thirty years 

 prior to its publication, and was engraved from a collection of native Indian drawings, which, under a necessarily extraordinary 

 aspect, are now known to exhibit with accuracy many truly interesting species. The same series of drawings, or a corresponding 

 copy, seems to have supplied the originals of both the other works just named. 



■* Shaw describes this magnificent fish as of a '" golden-yellow, longitudinally but somewhat obliquely striped with very nume- 

 rous bright blue parallel rays." This seems in some measure the reverse of the above, but is accounted for by the equal proper. 

 tion of the two colours, either of which may be regarded as the groundwork. 



