236 



ICHTHYOLOGY. 



Classifica- 

 tion — Ma- 

 lacopteri. 



not nice in their selection of a spawning place, depositing 

 their eggs at the bottom of the sea, sometimes on sand, 

 sometimes on naked rocks, occasionally in sub-marine 

 meadows, in the eddies of currents, at the mouths of rivers, 

 or in the sea far from the shore where the water is tranquil. 

 They change their places of resort, occasionally wholly de- 

 serting their former haunts. For a full account of what is 

 known of the economy and habits of the Herring and its 

 fisheries, we must refer to the Histoire des Poissoiu (Cuv. 

 and Valen.), vol. xx., and to the article on Fisheries in 

 this Encyclopaedia. The Herring fishery of France, carried 

 on by the inhabitants of Normandy, dates as far back as a.d. 

 1 030, according to documents still preserved. That of Eng- 

 land has been traced to a still higher date ; it is named in the 

 records of the Monastery of Evesham as a source of revenue 

 in 709 A.D. ; and in the annals of the Monastery of Bark- 

 ing, the tax levied upon it is called Herring-silver. In Ice- 

 land the Herring fishery seems to have been so important 

 at an early age, that the word sild (Herring) enters into the 

 com[)osition of the names of many mountains in that island. 

 Harevgula sprattus, Valenc, is the S|)rat, so abundant on 

 the English coasts at certain seasons, and from its cheap- 

 ness is an aliment that serves to vary the diet of the jjoorer 

 classes. It is the SprtetU'-sildoi the Danes, many of whose 

 sea-terms and names offish and implements for fishing, have 

 been preserved with slight alteration in the north of Eng- 

 land and Scottish lowlands. A second species is named 

 Blanquette by the French in the Mediterranean, and is so 

 like the Sprat that most ichthyologists have contbunded the 

 two. Bof/enia alha, Valenc, is the renowned " White- 

 bait" with which our ministry always regale themselves 

 after winding up their parliamentary labours tor the session. 

 Mr Yarrell's able account of it exhausts its history, and need 

 only be referred to here. Alausa ridgaris, L'Alose of the 

 French, and the Shad of the English. Ausonius of Bor- 

 deaux, who flourished a.d. 380, in his poem on the Moselle, 

 mentions the Shad as the food of the common people — 

 " Stridentesque focis opsonia pleb's alausas." 

 Alnusa pilchard us, the Pilchard so plentifully caught in 

 its season on the Devonshire coast, and consumed by the 

 inhabitants of that county in pies, in which the heads of the 

 fish protrude through the crust, to denote the nature of the 

 contents. It is the Sardinia of the Spanish peninsula and 

 Mediterranean Sea, and the Ceilan of the French fisher- 

 men. Its fishery is important to the inhabitants of the 

 south of England, Brittany, Portugal, and Gallicia. At 

 St Yves in Cornwall, 250,000 have been caught in a single 

 draught, and few who have visited Lisbon but must have 

 admired the fleets of sharp-built latine-sailed boats, named 

 " Bean-cods," issuing from the Tagus, to carry on a fishery 

 so invaluable to a Roman Catholic population. 



Eiigranlis encrasicliolus, the Anchovy, is another cele- 

 brated member of this fimiily, very plentiiid in the Mediter- 

 ranean, and found on the coasts of Greenland, Jutland, and 

 the Baltic ; it is occasionally caught in the Irish Channel, 

 but is rave on the English side of the British Channel, 

 though it has been taken, according to Mr Yan-ell, on the 

 Hampshire coast, and on Dagenham Breach below Black- 

 wall. Formerly it was more abundant in the British seas, 

 and several acts of parliament passed in the reign of Wil- 

 liam and Mary regulated its fisheries. It was also a century 

 ago |)lentil'ul on the coasts of Brittany, though by no means 

 so now. 



Under the head of Fisheries the statistics of the deep- 

 sea fisheries of Great Britain are fully entered into, and their 

 great importance as a branch of national industry shown in 

 detail. There are, however, wide fields for the employment 

 of British capital in the East, where the supplies are inex- 

 haustible, and the demand in the C hina and other markets 

 exceedingly great. Coilia Phti/jairi is represented by fig. 

 IT. The Alausa toll (Cuv. and Val.) is the subject of a 



very extensive fishery on the coast of Sumatra, for the sake Classifica- 

 of its roes, which are salted and exported to China, the dried tion— Ma- 

 fishes themselves being sent into the interior ol' Sumatra, 'acp'''''- 

 The fish is named " 'I'rubu" in the Malay tongue, is abo\it ^^^/"—^ 

 18 inches long, and between fourteen and fifteen millions 

 are caught annually with very rude tackle. 



Another of the Hen-ing tribe, Xhe EngrauUs Brownii, is 

 exceedingly numerous at all seasons in the Straits of Ma- 

 lacca, and at the mouths of the Ganges. From it a delicious 

 condiment named " Red fish" is prepared by adding vinegar 

 made of the juice of the Cocoa palm, ginger, black pepper, 

 and powdered red-rice to the salted fish. Unssuniiera 

 acuta and Clupeoiiia perforata, also members of this family, 

 are taken at Penang, and brought to table under the deno- 

 mination of " Sardines." They are said to have a delicate 

 flavour ; but the Meletta x^enenosa, which occasionally 

 visits those seas in shoals, is poisonous, and has prod\iced 

 death when eaten by mistake for the " Sardine." The 

 poisonous fish has red eyes. These facts are fi'om Dr Cantor, 

 whose work on the Malayan fishes goes more into detail. 



Scb-Order III.— ABDOSIINALES. 

 Family I.— HETEROPYGII. 



Tellkampf characterized this family from the blind fish found 

 in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, Amhlyo-psis spelteus. It is dis- 

 tinguished from the other Physostomi abdominales by the position 

 of the vent on the throat before the ventrais, and small eyes 

 covered with skin; it possesses no accessory gills, no adipose dor- 

 sal ; a simple swim-bladder ; a caecal stomach ; and pancreatic 

 ca?ca. The very forward position of the anus occurs in other fa- 

 milies, notably in Gymnotida:, also in several of the Tceniotdce, and 

 Lophiid(B. Dr Wyman, on examining the fish, could discover no 

 ocular speck, but a pretty large optic nerve. Agassiz is inclined 

 to consider the Amhlyopsis as an aberrant form of the Vyprinid(B, 

 but until he has investigated its embryology he reserves his deci- 

 sion. 



Genus I. Amblvopsis. Characters those of the family. 



Genus II. Cholooaster, Agassiz. Habit that oi Ambly(fyfi>, 

 but it has eyes; it has likewise a guttural anus, but wants the 

 ventrais wholly. There are two horn-like processes on the snout. 

 One species, C. cornuUis. 



Family II.— APIIRODEIRID^, Bon. 



This family, founded on a single species, is placed by the Prince 

 of Canino in the order of Heuropyijii, comprising Amblyopsis also. 

 Both agree in the guttural position of the anus, but M. Valenci- 

 ennes places Aphrodederus among his I'ercoids, near Pomotis. The 

 characters of the family are thr.se of the genus. 



Genus I. APHRODEnERUS, Lesueur. Scaly Acanthopteri, with a 

 single dorsal on the summit of the fusiform body ; pectorals and 

 subbrachial or abdominal ventrais ; anus before the pectorals, under 

 the gill-openings ; branchiostegals six. No spine in the ventrais ; a 

 spinous point to the operculum, and crenatures on the suborbitar 

 scale bones. Scales ctenoid. Stomach very small, siphonal, gut run- 

 ning forward from the anal fin in a canal among the muscles of the 

 abdomen to the anus, which opens just behind the edge of the bran- 

 chiostegal membrane. Air-bladder large, simple, with round ends. 

 Wilts communicating with the anal opening by a long canal which 

 follows the intestine. One species. Lake Pontchartrain. 



Family III. CLCPKID^, Valenc. 



Scaly fishes, without an adipose fin. Body generally elongated 

 and very much compressed; belly thin and trenchant, frequently 

 denticulated by the edges or points of a series of dermal bones. 

 Scales always present on the body, but easily detached. No spinous 

 rays in the fins ; ventral fins nearly in the middle of the body ; 

 dorsal fin always solitary ; moderately long pre-ma.rillary bones con- 

 joined with the maxillarks to form the upper border of the mouth 

 (this character they possess in common with the Salmonida); maxil- 

 lary composed of three pieces easily separated. 



Gill-openings very large; rakers of the branchial arches long, and 

 projecting towards the mouth ; no accessory gills present. Ribs long, 

 and with their epipleural spines very slender ; the latter diverg- 

 ing from the parapophyses and nenrapophyses of the vertebra% as 

 well as frnm the ribs ; points of the ribs connected with the dermal 

 osseous scales on the edge of the belly. Stomach csecal, often fleshy ; 

 pyloric caeca numerous and long. Ova (roe) very numerous, and, 



