182 CLASS XIV. 



bladder. There are only two pyloric appendages and the pyloric portion 

 of the stomach has thick muscular walls. Sometimes the first dorsal fin 

 has accidentally in one or another species five rays ; Linn^us has given 

 this, incorrectly, as a specific character of Mugil cephalus. 



Atherma L. Body elongate, with back sub-convex. Scales 

 moderate, cycloid. Mouth protractile. Small teeth in jaws, often 

 also in palate. Branchiostegous membrane with six rays. Two 

 dorsal fins small, distant ; the first with 4 — 9 spines, mostly six or 

 seven. Body with a silvery lateral band. 



These fishes are small; they have a swimming-bladder, but no pyloric 

 appendages. With much external resemblance to the preceding genus, 

 they differ from it in the scales, which Agassiz has described {Rech. s. les 

 Poiss. foss. I. p. 8, 83), and in anatomical particulars. 



Sp. Atherina hepsetus L., Cuv. et Val. Poiss. x. p. 302, fig. i, in the Medit. 

 Sea and the Black Sea, also in the Atlantic Ocean along the Northern 

 coast of Africa; — Athe7'ina presbyter, Cuv., Guerin Iconogr., Poiss. PI. 37, 

 fig. 3, Yarrell Brit. Fish. i. p. 214, from the North Sea, &c. 



Family XLIII. Asjndoparei [Cataphracti Muell.). Body 

 compressed or fusiform, with head mostly large, aculeate. Sub- 

 orbital bones large, conjoined posteriorly with the prseoperculum, 

 covering the cheeks with a shield. Scales ctenoid, often small, 

 oval. Teeth crowded, mostly thin in jaws, often also in vomer and 

 palate-bones. Ventral fins in most thoracic or jugular, in few 

 abdominal. 



Mail-cheeked fishes (joues cuir assies Cuv.). These fishes have 

 much resemblance to the Perches. In some, according to the ob- 

 servations of J. Mueller, there are only three gills and a half 

 present, and the fissure behind the last branchial arch is wanting. 

 This character', however, cannot well serve for dividing the family, 

 for then Pterois, for instance, would be separated from Scorpcena, 

 and each of these nearly allied genera be placed in a difierent 

 division. 



Phalanx I. Free sjnnes in front of dorsal fin, tchich is supported 

 hy soft rays. 



Gasterosteus L. (exclus. of some species). Jaws with very small, 

 crowded teeth ; palate edentulous. Branchiostegous membrane with 

 three rays. Body at the sides often covered with transverse osseous 

 scutes, elsewhere scaleless. Tail carinate on both sides. Ventral 



