176 CLASS XIV. 



Umhre-Jishes. Almost all tlie species of this large family are 

 marine. Some however are captured at the mouth of rivers ; a few 

 live in fresh water [Macquaria Cuv., Scolo2)sides cancellatus Cuv. 

 &c.). There is always a swimming-bladder, usually large, and often 

 furnished with many, very composite appendages. 



Compare Cuvier Hist. nat. des Poiss. v. PI. 1 38, 1 39, and especially on 

 the swimming-bladder of Scicena aquila, Mem. du Mus. I. pp. 18 — 21, 

 PI. 1. fig. 2, PI. II. III. 



The remarkable structure of the bones of the head, of which many, 

 especially the frontal bone, the row of sub-orbital bones and the ;proi- 

 opercidum, have in most species projecting lines, with cavities or depressions 

 between them, may be found illustrated in Cuviek et Valenciennes, Poiss. 

 v, PI. 140; see also a figure of Corvina nigra, under the name of Scicena 

 umhra, in Rosenthal Ichthyot. Taf. xvii. fig. [, and of Unibrina vulgaris 

 Cuv., Scicena cirrosa L., in Agabsiz Poiss. foss. iv. Tab. k. 



In many the ossicles of the auditory sac are very large ; whence a sub- 

 genus has its name {Otolithus). The uneducated multitude, who are so 

 ready to attribute miraculous powers to whatever is strange, thought in 

 the times of Belon, that the auditory ossicles of Scicena aquila, worn at 

 the neck, were a cure and a preventive of the colic. De Aquatilihus, 

 Parisiis, 1553, p. 118. 



Phalanx I. Dorsal fin single, ca/itinuous, or slightly emarginate 

 between the spines and the soft rays. 



Macquaria Cuv. Moutli edentulous. Branchiostegous mem- 

 brane with five rays. 



Sp. Macquaria ausiralasica Cuv. et Val. Poiss. V. PI. 131. 



Lohotes Cuv. Body liigli, short. Head in front of eyes short, 

 with snout declivous, sub-concave. Teeth small, crowded, thin. 

 Margin of prseoperculum denticulate. Branchiostegous membrane 

 with six rays. Dorsal and anal fins produced into a rounded apex. 



Sp. Lohotes surinamensis Cuv., Holocentrus surinamensis Bloch, Icldh. Tab. 

 243, along the east coast of America, from New York to Brasil; — Lohotes 

 erate Cuv., Regne Ani., ed. ill., Poiss. PI. 31, fig. i, a species, much 

 resembling the preceding, from the Indian Ocean, &c. 



Glaucosoma Schl. Branchiostegous membrane with seven rays. 

 Dorsal fin low anteriorly, with fewer pungent rays than in the 

 preceding genus, with which in other respects it has much in 

 common. 



Sp. Glaucosoma Burgeri nob., Glaucosoma Schleg., Faun. Jajpon., Pise. 

 Tab. 27. 



