252 



ICHTHYOLOGY. 



Classifica- Mormyri surmounted by tlie mytliic horned circle emble- 

 tion— Ma- niatic of the divinity Athor ; and niumified 3Iori)ii/ri are not 

 lacopteri. ,..j^g_ g|^ j_ Qa,.jng,. Wilkinson says, that the name of these 

 ' ' fish in modern Egypt is Mizde/i ; and in page 250 of the 

 second vohime of the second series of Ancient Eyi/pt, lie 

 gives two very recognisable representations of a Mormi/rus 

 taken from bronzes, one of them crowned by the emblem 

 in question. A third figure is co|)ied from a representation 

 of tlie fisli in the temple of the Great Oasis, where it is 

 coupled with the name of the goddess, and shows. Sir Gard- 

 ner thinks, that the fable of the metamor|)hosis of Venus 

 into a fish was of Egyptian origin. The ancient Egyptians 

 appear to have made the Morniyrus an object of veneration, 

 but to have abstained from eating it, according to Plutarch, 

 because it was one of three different kinds which devoured a 

 l)art of the bodyof Osiris, andwhich Isis therefore was \uiable 

 to recover when she collected the rest of the scattered mem- 

 bers of her husband. The Morniyrus lomjipinnis of Riip- 

 pell, or M. caschive of Hasselqnist and Valenciennes, has 

 been ascertained to possess electric organs, which probably 

 exist in other species also, and may be one reason for the 

 veneration of the whole genus by the ancient Egyptians. 

 The long-finned species represented by one of the bronzes 

 figured by Sir Gardner Wilkinson is either this M. caschive 

 or the 31. oxyrhiiichus wjiich has also a long dorsal. Miiller 

 found the premaxillaries of the Mormyri to be united so 

 as to form a single bone. 



Family XII.— MORMYRID.f;, Mull. 



Mormyri^ Cuv. Longish compressed bodies, with a tail slender 

 at its origin, but swelling out at the attachment of the caudal. 

 Head encased in a thick, naked skin, which envelopes the giU- 

 cover and branchiostegals, and leaves only a perpendicular slit for 

 a giU-oj)ening. Branchiostegals six. Mouth small, and bounded 

 above mesially by a single bone formed of the coalescent pre- 

 maxillaries as in Diodon^ laterally the maxillaries enter into the 

 composition of the orifice. Dentition various. The post-frontal or 

 temporal apparatus is simpler than in other fish, therein resembling 

 the Sihirithe. The cranium has a peculiar canal closed by the 

 skin, leading to the interior hollow of the skull, and the acoustic 

 labyrinth. Accessory gills absent ; stomach globular ; intestine 

 long and slender; two pyloric caica ; swim-bladder simple. 



Genus I. Moii.mvkus, Miill. A row of slender teeth, curved at 

 the tips on the premaxillaries and mandible, and in the young a 

 stripe of raduliform teeth on the hinder parts of the vomer. M. 

 cyprinoideSy oxyrhynchuSy dorsalis, longipinnis. 



Genus II. Mokmyrops, Mull. Conical teeth on the jaws in 

 place of curved tipped ones. M. angiiilloides, tabiatua. 



M. Valenciennes does not adopt these genera of M. Miiller, as he 

 says that conical and slender teeth exist on the jaws of the same 

 species. He describes twenty species, in two groups, characterized 

 by the length of the dorsal fin. Since the publication of the Hia- 

 toire des Poissons, Peters has discovered six new ones on the Moz- 

 ambique coast. Most of the species described by M. Valenciennes 

 have two minute lateral cusps to the teeth, separated by a notch as 

 in Crenidens. 



CYPRINODONTS. 



The typical forms of this family are small fishes, formerly 

 considered to be Cyprinoids, but, as their name denotes, 

 ilift'ering from the true Carps in possessing teeth, and, more- 

 over, in having protractile jaws ; they want also the kind of 

 pharyngeal grinding apparatus which is peculiar to the 

 Carps. Species exist both in the Old and New Worlds ; 

 and some inhabit indifferently fresh, brackish, or salt water. 

 We have seen specimens procured in a brine spring and 

 salt marsh on the shores of the Dead Sea, on the supposed 

 site of Sodom, probably from one of the slime pits of Siddim 

 of which the valley was full in Abraham's time. In one 

 member of this family, the Guapuclia {Pacilia hogotensis), 

 which inhabits the little river of Bogota on the plateau of 

 Santa Fe, 8840 feet above the sea level, Humboldt found 

 a double air-bladder ; and, on exaiuining the contained air, 

 ascertained that 93 parts in 100 were azote, the rest being 



carbonic acid and oxygen. The Orestias are found at a Classifica- 

 stiU greater altitude, being inhabitants of Lake Titicaca tion — ^'a- 

 and other elevated sheets of water on the Cordilleras of '^^opten. 

 Fern and Bolivia, between the 14th and 19th degrees of ^^^y"-^ 

 latitude, and from 13,000 to 14,000 feet above the sea. The 

 flesh of tliese fishes is a great delicacy ; and they are sought 

 for during the winter season, when they can be transported 

 without spoiling. 



Anahleps is a genus which excites the attention of the 

 dullest of observers by a conformation of the eyes which no 

 other vertebrated animal possesses, in the cornea being 

 divided into two somewhat unequal elliptical parts by a 

 bridle of the conjunctiva, giving to each eye the appearance 

 of l)eing double. This very peculiar structure has most 

 likely a connection with the habit the fish has of swimming 

 with the eyes partly out of the water. Pancliax and ]'un- 

 dellia were considered by M. Valenciennes to have affinities 

 with Pcecilia, but owing to their possessing teeth on the 

 palate he places them after Esox. Neither has Diplopterus 

 been enumerated among the Cyprinodonts by Miiller, but 

 no other more convenient ])lace tor these three genera oc- 

 curs than just before the Esocidce. 



Family XIII.— CYPRINODONTID.^, Agass. 



Cyprinodontes, Agass. This is a very pVecise family, with pro- 

 minent characters. Its members resemble the Cyprhiidte in habit, 

 but they do not possess the large pharyngeal tooth, nor the bony 

 process of the basi-occipital. Upper and under pharyngeal teeth 

 card-like; maxillary as in the Cyprinidce, and the premaxillaries 

 forming alone the upper half of the mcuth, but they are armed 

 with teeth ; jaws protractile. Swim-bladder simple, and unfur- 

 nished with a chain of acoustic ossicles. No sup)ilementary gills. 

 Stomach siphonal ; no pancreatic cseca. Some are viviparous. 



Genus I. Pcecilia, Valenc. Jaws depressed, horizontal and 

 protractile, the upper border of the mouth formed solely by the 

 premaxillaries; moveable and curved teeth on both jaws in an 

 exterior row, with a stripe of villiform teeth behind ; roof of the 

 mouth edentate, soft ; many rows of hooked teeth on the pharyn- 

 geals. Five branchiostegals. A single, simple air-bladder. Long, 

 simple intestines ; viviparous. Eight species. 



Genus 11. Mollienesia, Lesu. Having the dentition, bran- 

 chiostegals, and intestines of Poecilia, they differ in the position of 

 the anus, advanced to between the ventrals, which are rather far 

 back. A large and long dorsal and expanded caudal. One species. 

 Lake Pontchartrain. 



Genus 111. Xiphophorus, Heck. Teeth bristly, short, sur- 

 rounded by a row of stouter ones. Ventrals as in ilollienena ; anal 

 in the male close to the ventrals, the front rays thickened, con- 

 nected together by a long plate, whose extremity is used as a 

 prehensile organ ; the posterior rays very short. Three Mexican 

 species. 



Genus IV. CYPiiiNODON.Lacep. (Lsbias, Cuv.) Viviparous fishes, 

 with the jaws rather less depressed than in Fcccilia, the teeth in a 

 single close row, compressed and tricuspid. Branchiostegals five. 

 Intestines and air-bladder of Pcecilia. Small fishes resembling a 

 Minnow. Eight species. 



Genus V. Fundulus, Lacep, Characterized by the presence of 

 fine card-like teeth on arched premaxillaries, the upper half of 

 the orifice of the mouth being semicircular. Head flat beneath ; 

 and the jaws not depressed as in Pacilia. Branchiostegals five. 

 Eight species. 



Genus VI. HvDRABGYRA, Lacep, Teeth of .Fundw/uj. Six bran- 

 chiostegals. Four species. 



Genus VII. Grundulus, Valenc. Body compressed, oval ; the 

 flat upper jaw shorter than the mandible; numerous teeth on the 

 jaws. Dorsal far back, opposite to the anal. Branchiostegals five. 

 Air-bladder double, the posterior one much the largest. One 

 species, seen only by Baron Humboldt. 



Genus VUI. Okestias, Valenc. Thickly fusiform, apodal, scaly 

 fishes. Dorsal and anal opposite to each other, behind the middle 

 of the body, on the commencement of the tail. Mouth rather small 

 at the extremity of a muzzle which bulges beneath by the projec- 

 tion of the mandible ; teeth fine and hooked ; pharyngeal teeth 

 card-like. Five branchiostegals. Scales of the fore part of the fish 

 hard horny bucklers, with occasional intervals of naked skin ; 

 posteriorly they are ordinary cycloid scales like those of a Carp. 

 Lower part of the belly destitute of scales, shining and metallic in 

 lustre. Nine species, Andes, 



M, Gervais has instituted a genus which he names Tcllia, for an 



